China Cabinet or Buffet?

Red Wind Studio
by Red Wind Studio
While checking out my daily Kijiji Alert I came across abeautiful china cabinet and knew I just had to get it even though I reallydidn’t have room for it in my shop. The gentleman selling it was kind enough todeliver and thank goodness as it never would have fit in my SUV. It is a verygood quality piece of furniture made by a respected Canadian company GerardCollin Inc. When we brought the units into the shop we did not put the hutchback on top of the buffet.
I decided after quite a bit of consideration to paint it three colours. I wanted impact but not over the top in your face. I decided to go with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint ™ in Coco, Old Ochre and Graphite (darkened). I painted the drawer fronts first with the large area in Old Ochre and around the edge Coco. The rest I basically went with Coco as the main colour and the Old Ochre and Graphite as the accent. I did however paint the entire top of the buffet and interior of the hutch in the Graphite.
There were a lot of curved areas on this piece where different colours were beside each other and using a regular brush was not working too well. I didn’t worry too much about slight overlap or going over the lines per say. Once I got all the paint basically where it needed to be and the proper coverage I went back with an artist brush and cleaned up the edges. I don’t usually tape I find it time consuming and wasteful in most cases and I can free hand faster.
In the case of the front legs I wanted to transition from Old Ochre to Coco so I wrapped the paint around the bottom of the foot and brought it up to a point on the backside. It helps accent the carving on the leg.
The handles were a brass that just disappeared up against the old finish but the detail was really nice and needed to be featured on the furniture. I painted the handles the same Graphite, rubbed a little clear wax on them and then brushed silver gilding wax on to enhance the beautiful detail. I went with a fair amount of dark wax all over the buffet. I wanted enough that it would even show a bit on the Graphite. It adds richness to the paint. Graphite I find hard to age but adding the dark wax and then buffing a lot with steel wool gives it a nice gloss but at the same time it looks like time has had its effect on the surface. No matter what angle I tried to take a picture to show the top and how it really looks it just didn’t turn out. I guess you will need to come for a visit and see for yourself!
The more I worked on the two pieces the more I thought who is going to want a china cabinet this big. I thought maybe I should just finish the buffet and use the hutch for another personal purpose. As I was buffing the top of the buffet with steel wool I made my decision to do exactly that. The hutch will be finished and used for another purpose and that will be another post.
I achieved the drama I was looking for and I believe this buffet deserves. I am sure it will make a beautiful addition to someone’s home. Until then she sits pretty in my studio. http://redwindstudio.ca/store/2014/01/29/china-cabinet-or-buffet/
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  • Lori Lori on Apr 03, 2016
    This is amazing. Love your attention to detail and what you can do with it.
  • Linda Linda on Nov 27, 2016
    I have a china cabinet that is almost identical to yours. For two years (at least) I have been toying with the idea of painting it and now after seeing yours (and many others), I am going to bite the bullet. Your cabinet is absolutely beautiful. I am not sure if I will do the top or not, I would rather not, but not sure what to do with it as it is so heavy and moving into the basement is not an option ! Hopefully I will be posting on here soon, so watch this space !
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