Curio Cabinet Makeover

Layne Dasher
by Layne Dasher
2 Materials
$30
60 Minutes
Easy

This curio cabinet makeover is a unique piece of furniture that has been given new life. Check out the the tutorial below to see how I transformed this piece with some paint in just one afternoon.

Before the Makeover


I love a good furniture makeover. Especially when the furniture is an antique that has been passed down.


I have owned the curio cabinet for over 15 years. My grandmother left this cabinet to me and I have fond memories of looking into this cabinet at all her pretty ceramic pieces when the cabinet was in her home as a little girl.


So naturally, when she passed, I was delighted to have it in my home.

My father held on to it for me while I was in college, and even in my first home apartment.


After getting married and later buying our first home, my father brought the piece back to me! I was so excited!


The cabinet itself is shorter than your typical hutch, and when angled can sit in the corner pretty nicely.


 have also displayed a variety of things in the cabinet including craft supplies, and my Christmas Snow baby collection.

The funny thing is that it never seemed to fit or be quite right in my our home.

I really loved the cabinet, and being that I had so many fond memories of it, I wanted to make it work once and for all with our decor.

Therefore, I decided to paint it.

Funny story. my grandmother was also known to paint just about everything and my family says I am just like her since one of my go-to solutions always seems to paint it.


She had the cabinet painted this creme color with black speckles long before she died, and honestly, I do not have a recollection of being anything else.

So when I knew I wanted to paint it, I was a little nervous. I didn’t want to mess it up, or ruin its beauty.


When I finally got brave enough to do it, I go to work one afternoon and emptied the cabinet of all of the many figurines and things I had in there. It was completely random with no theme.


I scoured the internet for some inspiration and landed on a blueish grayish color. The only problem was that the color in my head didn’t quite exist, so I did the next best thing.

I made my own color.


That’s right, I mixed two colors together. I chose a satin finish paint from Sherwin Williams in Cloudy Sky and  Smoke and mixed equal parts of the paint together.I painted the back of the cabinet first just to reassure myself of my paint color choice and let it dry. Once I was ready, I got to work painting the front.


No turning back now.

Finishing the Paint Job and Styling


In just a few hours I had finished my project, and I was so excited!

I only did one coat of paint, and touched up where necessary. Most of the time was in taping off the glass on both the inside and the outside.

Each shelf also had to be painted top and bottom. Again, I only did one coat and was happy with the result.


You can easily add wax or a darker paint to give a distressed finished, but I didn’t want that look for this piece.


Instead, I decided to just use a chalk paint wax from Annie Sloan to give one good coat of wax finish. Even though I did not use chalk paint to actually paint the piece, I love to still use the wax as a topcoat for all of my furniture pieces instead of doing a polyurethane.

Adding Pottery to the Cabinet


Once it was finished I knew exactly what I wanted to display in it.

All white pottery.


Of course, I have a modest collection of Rae Dunn ceramic pieces, and I have a few modern pieces of pottery and silver.

However for this cabinet, I wanted all white.


I started filling it up and styling the cabinet with what I had, and then in my recent trips to Home Goods and TJ Maxx, I added a few things here and there.


I don’t think I have all the pieces, I’d like to add to it just yet, but I do like the way it is coming out.

Suggested materials:
  • Paint
  • Chalk paint
Layne Dasher
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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