Updating a China Cabinet

by Connie Murray

24 years ago my husband gave me a china cabinet that he had made (the bottom part) for a wedding gift. His parents worked in a furniture factory and gave him the top for it. It was a really dark piece and I loved it. I still do but was getting tired of the dark color. We bought a new house and moved in November and the new house has all dark wood trim and hardwood floors and it just didn't look as good as it did in the old house. So I decided to paint it. I sanded it and used a kitchen and bath paint (GASP) that I had kicking around the house. (We have been having a brutal winter and have been stuck in our house for 4 days because of snow storms that have closed our roads down and I couldn't get out anywhere to buy furniture paint). It was a white color and my original intention was to paint it a teal color but soon changed my mind as I didn't think it would look good against the wall color. I put one coat on and loved the difference already. I waited until it was dry (which it was quickly as we heat our house with a wood stove) and gave it a second coat. Once it was painted with two coats I fell in love with it all over again. It looks so much better, at least in my opinion, then it did with the dark paint and my husband even liked it. It looks so good against the wall color and the color of the wood floors and trim. I still have the handles to paint and think I might do them in a black paint. This was a great way to spend a storm stayed snowy weekend and I love how it turned out.