Patina Inspiration| A Primitive Cupboard

Terry Foster
by Terry Foster
I’ve said it a few times… the uglier the piece, the better! Really my blog title should read “Making the broken AND ugly beautiful” Lol!
The before and after of this piece is amazing and I’m so excited to share my latest project with you. This is going to be a post dripping with pictures! I could look at this pretty little cabinet all day!
This little cupboard was doomed for the dump. It’s owner thought it was ugly and was going to trash it. I thought that while it was ugly and poorly painted (note the dripping goopy red glaze on it) it did have some pretty features. It is low profile and the hardware was original and primitive.


I told her to let me take it home, strip it of it’s red tackiness and dress it up with some pretty legs… this is how she turned out!
Under all that red was gorgeous patina just waiting to be found!!!!


First I stripped off all the paint and tacky velvet wall paper…
Six long hours of scraping just to get the red off. My arms were aching like they were going to fall off by the time I finished. Underneath all that red nastiness were some lovely layers of sage green, mustard yellow and white paint. I decided to stop the stripping process at this point so I could use these layers left as primitive patina.


I removed the doors. Cut off the bottom part of the cupboard. Added crown molding to the top and bottom of the cupboard and then put on some pretty legs I bought at Windsor Plywood.


I sprayed the whole piece (doors included) with Espresso colored spray paint in a matte finish (this is a dark brown rich color).


After some dry time I gave everything a coat of chalk paint in the color “Amber Waves of Grain” from The American Chalk Paint Company. When dry, I went over the whole piece with 180 grit sandpaper to smooth out any brush strokes. Then I went over it again with another coat of paint followed by more sanding but this time I used 220 grit. After sanding it down to reveal the espresso paint and some of the original patina, I finished it off with a light sanding using 400 grit to give it a super smooth feel.


After hours of sanding (literally as I do it all by hand) I then got out the clear wax and the whole piece got a generous coat. I used Miss Mustard Seed’s clear wax for this and applied it with a brush, making sure to really rub it into the chalk paint.
To see the beautiful outcome of this piece in it's entirety ... Please visit the link below!
Terry Foster
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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