Reviving a Little Vintage Blue Cabinet

This past weekend we picked up an antique cabinet, it’s probably more of a small armoire than anything, but when I saw it I knew it was coming with me. When we got the new armoire inside, it displaced a lot of things around our staging area, including my favorite little blue cabinet. This little blue cabinet was one of the pieces I bid on just hours after having surgery. Despite the fact that it was very risky to bid on things when I was half out of it, I don’t regret it. 

After I got the cabinet home and inspected it, I realized that I should have inspected it a little more carefully. This baby was disgusting, it was not in very good condition, but oh, I loved it. It’s a piece that is small enough to be in a small vestibule or nook, but it is large enough to store things in the bottom and display favorite pieces in the top. This cabinet did not start the way you see it here though. It started out filthy, it was a dingy white, it was terrible. 

Using chalk paint from Waverly, Homestead House wax, sandpaper, olive oil and new mother of pearl and brass hardware, I transformed this ugly duckling into a swan. I painted the base of the cabinet in Ivory and I made two custom shades of blue using Night Sky and the Ivory. Between shades of blue I used olive oil as a resist, in places where I wanted the cabinet to be chippy. I used a lighter shade of the blue as my second coat and a darker shade as my final coat. The insides of the cabinet were painted in all Ivory. I gave the entire cabinet a very good sanding because I wanted a smooth finish. I did three layers of wax: first was clear, white and then clear. I gave each layer of wax a good buff in between. 

I won’t lie, I got a few eyebrow raises when I proudly walked out with my groddy cabinet, but I knew that I could turn it into something nice. Right now the little blue cabinet has been relegated to an out of the way corner, but we’ll find a place where it can shine again.