Some New Tricks!

         Hey, Everyone! I've been working on quite a few projects - I'm very excited for you to see them! Today I'm going to share the hutch I was recently hired to refinish. After looking into a few options, we decided the most feasible option would be to use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Instead of stripping and sanding down the dark stain that was already on the hutch, we wanted it to show through the Annie Sloan Old White paint colour we selected. The results were a huge transformation! This hutch also had some very out dated brass metal drawer pulls and knobs. The owner requested that I try spray painting them a chestnut brown shade. I was pretty nervous about trying this for the first time, but they turned out beautifully. What was a very dated antiquated hutch, now has a fresh, bright look! 

This is the top of the hutch, as you can see, it looked quite dated.

And this is the bottom half, previously being used as a TV stand.

 After taking all of the hardware (knobs, hinges, etc.), the next step was to tape off the window to the upper cabinet. This way there wouldn't be any paint residue to have to clean off afterwards. What I absolutely love about chalk paint is that it requires no sanding! What a time and money saver! It would have taken hours of sanding and wood stripping to get to this step, but the chalk paint easily adhered to the already varnished wood!

 This photo is a great example of how I distressed the hutch by painting. There was no sanding required to get this look. This "brushed" technique is one I'm starting to perfect after so many projects! 

 After doing one coat, the hutch was almost unrecognizable! I did a touch up by doing a second, very thin coat of paint.

And what a difference! Already it's going from outdated to a classic vintage look!

After applying a couple coats of Varathane to protect the finish, the next thing to do was to spray paint the hardware to give it an update too!

This is the spray paint I used by Rust- Oleum. It is a paint and primer for any surface - wood, metal, you name it! We chose the colour Chestnut, since it would add some elegance to the hutch and make the hardware really stand out! 

Here is all the hardware waiting for some new paint.

 This is after one coat of the spay paint. At first I was worried because the paint seemed to crackle. The image below demonstrates it better. Thankfully, after a few more coats the paint adhered to the hardware and was nice and even!

After the hardware had dried off, I used KRylon Color Master, which is a clear protectant to keep the paint from coming off.

Once the hardware was dried off completely, it was time for us to put the hutch back together and see the final results...

This project surprised everyone when they saw the transformation! I found the chalk paint and spray painting to be very user friendly and will definitely continue to explore both of these products. In the end, the time saved by not having to sand and the money saved by not having to buy new hardware made this project a very feasible one, with great results!