The Evolution Of A Cabinet: Computer Workstation Turned Rustic Global TV Cabinet Step 1

I have received complimentary product to test for this post. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

Hola,
The snow is already beginning to pour and as we prepare for the first snow storm of the year, I’m worrying about the progress on my family room refresh as part of the New Year, New Room Refresh challenge that I’m hosting.  Part of the room refresh involves an update to our Ikea computer workstation that I wanted to repurpose into a rustic Spanish colonial/global inspired TV cabinet.

I’ve had the idea of transforming the cabinet for a very long time and have been lining up my resources to accomplish the evolution of my cabinet.  It was very fortuitous that I had been given the opportunity to work with the wonderful bloggers of the Fab Furniture Flipping Contest and this month’s sponsor, General Finishes who provided a quart of their new line of chalk paint.  What luck!  I needed paint and here was this great opportunity.

I wanted to lighten the cabinet so that my family room would open up and brighten.  So fitting that the theme of the competition is A Fresh Start.  I will definitely be giving my cabinet a fresh start this New Year.  I opted to use the Chalk White paint by General Finishes and applied several coats on the very large cabinet.  I was given a quart to test and in the process of this project have used almost the entire can!  Here is why.

Excuse the phone before shot.  Took this last Summer prior to my DSLR.

I first applied three coats of paint and sanded the cabinet between the coats.  The white was great in the can, but was looking very stark against the greige wall color and caramel colored sofa.

I distressed the cabinet a bit and thought, hmm it is looking pretty great now.  So, I kept distressing it.

Now, at this point, I had stepped back and began regretting my decision. It was looking too purposefully distressed, if that makes sense.  It didn’t look naturally distressed.  The cabinet reminded me too much of a cow.  Have I mentioned before that I live in an extremely rural county?!

So, I applied another coat on top.

Then, I waited……and waited…..and waited for my mind to make a decision on what to do next.  I know, distress it!

Wait?!  You’re asking me now why did I paint it again, only to distress it again, right?  Well, you have more sense than I did at the time.  It was 2am and I just did it.

Then, I thought it’s not the distress that is wrong it just needs an antiquing wax.

No, amigos.  I was wrong.

I just wasn’t able to create the image I had in my mind.  I wanted a rustic piece that looked aged.  I needed to have depth in order to proceed to my next step which would be updating the hardware with Spanish cast iron pieces and applying my detailing to the panels.

So, what did I do next?  I took a scrapper and started scraping and distressing the now antique white 4th layer of paint.  I didn’t stop…

To my surprise, the painting job was looking more and more as I had envisioned.  I kept distressing and got a bit carried away.  It was like I was a kid again peeling dried glue off my fingertips.  I loved scraping and distressing the cabinet.  I sprayed the paint with a mild organic cleaner, waited a few minutes, then scraped the paint.

What I was left with was a cabinet that aged about three decades, look worn,  and had the details highlighted with the great paint.  The more I look at it, the more I love it.  So, what do you think?  Just wait until you see what the next phase is.

Eager to see the entire room?  Come back on Tuesday to see the reveal of my family room refresh.  Catch up on the first two weeks here and here.

A big thank you to all of the hosts for working so hard to provide us with these challenges and working hard behind the scene to make sure everything is organized.  If you would like to view other January participants post please stop by visiting Evey’s Creations and Anastasia Vintage.  Are you a blogger interested in participating in the Fab Furniture Flipping Contest?  Send an email to info@fabfurnitureflippingcontest.com.

Thank you so much for stopping by my casa.
Regressan Pronto