A "Throwback Thursday" Furniture Makeover: For the LOVE of paint!

A paint love affair

how it began...

With all love affairs......there is always a beginning. My love affair with paint began about 15 years ago. It was a breezy spring day when family members delivered an antique china cabinet to my door. I wish I had taken a picture of the piece when it was delivered. It was a rich walnut stained piece with tall decorative legs and decorative wood cutouts on either side of the slendor glass door. The piece was given to us by my in-laws. They were so lovely to give it to us! My husband and I had been married 5 years and as newly married, we didn't have a lot of great furniture yet.

We had just bought a new home and most of the cabinetry, a built-in bookcase, as well as various pieces of furniture, were all made of oak. The oak was a light or blond oak, something that I just don't care for; even today. By that time, I had painted plenty of walls, but not much furniture. I had an oak table and chairs, which were also the blond oak-(insert yucky emoji face here) in my dining room. And now, I had a dark walnut china hutch! I had to do something to form some type of cohesive look between the table and hutch. At once, I decided I would paint them both to coordinate. I decided to paint the hutch a soft black.

Here is a look at our house at the time.

The oak bookcase in the living room was really great!

Of course, I would have painted it by now; along with the oak kitchen cabinets too! :)

Ok, let me just say here that black furniture was not out yet, so black was pretty bold and all I can say is that I was ahead of my time! Yeah for me!

My plan was to paint the light oak table legs white along with the chairs to make the country table setting look "French" country--good idea? Qui?

The only thing I did that I probably wouldn't have done again is to paint the table top black to match the hutch. I mean, it wasn't horrible but it would have been better stained a dark walnut or just painted white like the rest of the table.

I painted the table and hutch so long ago that chalk paint had not been invented yet, at least not to my knowledge, so I used good ol' latex paint. Chalk paint vs. latex is really not a contest to me and oh how I wish I would have had chalk paint then. But, it looked nice and here is the still (15 years later) black latex painted "Ooh la la" of China Hutch's! Isn't she pretty?

Two years after I painted the hutch black, Pottery Barn and some of the big box stores came out with black painted finishes to their furniture pieces!

Your welcome Pottery Barn....lol!

Now, I did catch some grief over painting the hutch because it was black and also simply because it was painted! (insert Smiley face here) But as I reflect now; it was so worth it and I believe now in doing things that make you happy! This piece still makes me happy! I love it and will treasure it forever! I feel so grateful for this hand me down piece of furniture and I am glad I made it my own. It truly amazes me to see what kind of transformation a piece can go through with just a little paint. There are pieces of furniture that I wouldn't paint, antique or otherwise, but I find that recycling a piece of furniture to fit into your decor or just give it new life by painting or re-staining it, makes a lot of sense. Not only can you get a good price on used furniture but most of the time, for me, I find that older furniture made with real wood is so much nicer.

These days I love chalk and milk paints. The main reason for me is the finish results and drying time. I love a light distressing around the edges too and it so much easier to do with these kinds of paints.

I've thought of re-painting this piece a couple of times just to use the chalk paint instead, but love the black finish on this so much that I don't want to change it.

Since this piece, I've painted probably a hundred pieces of furniture and I am truly addicted. Now days, I sell most of the pieces that I paint; but I will always hold this China Hutch dear in my heart... for where it all began!

Until next time.....

Make something you will treasure!