Let’s Paint the Hoosier!

Jeanne
by Jeanne
13 Materials
$50
2 Days
Easy

Recently, I found my new favorite color! It's a nice, warm teal and I'm in love! I decided to use it and repaint our antique hoosier. I know, I know, WHO would paint an antique??! Well, usually NOT me! I found the hoosier 30 years ago in an antique/junk shop. It was tucked in the back of a warehouse and had water damage along the bottom. The damage was so bad that it warped the veneer on both sides. To fix the issue, we glued down the sides and cut a 1" x 12" board to cover the area. Since the wood was so damaged, I chose to paint the cabinet but left the doors & drawers wood. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the cabinet before painting it.

The first paint color I used on the cabinet was a soft jade green. The stain color was golden oak. As you can see in the picture, I also painted the faux drawer front above the bottom doors. At the time, I didn't know it was removable. There were no handles on the cabinet when we got it so I bought some inexpensive cream plastic ones. Sorry for the picture quality - it is a picture of a picture :)

Several years ago, I painted the cabinet again. This time, I used a dark olive paint that I used when painting the kitchen cabinets. When I painted it that time, I was not changing the stain so I didn't remove the doors. I just carefully painted around the hinges.

Now that I was going to paint with teal, I thought a darker stain would look nice. I decided to use the Minwax Provincial stain that I have been using in the house on the trim and baseboards. What that meant was that I'd be removing the doors, hinges, handles, and drawers.

The enameled metal surface on the large door is attached with screws, once I removed those, it was easy to remove the metal piece. The platform that holds the enameled metal was attached to the cabinet with a couple of hinges, I removed those too.

With the doors & drawers removed, I moved the hoosier to the living room to paint. I noticed that the veneer had started to warp again on one of the sides. I also saw that some of the veneer on the back was also warped.

So, before painting, I grabbed the Elmer's wood glue and got to work fixing it. After squeezing the glue between the cabinet and warped wood on the side of the cabinet, I set weight on top of the area and also used a clamp to hold the pieces together.

For the back veneer, I used a piece of wood and several clamps.

Once all the veneer was fixed, it was time to paint! As I looked at the inside of the cabinet, I saw that the paint was worn and could use a fresh coat. While the white looked good from a distance, once I had it empty and wiped down, it was obvious that there was wear and tear. I had some white satin interior paint on hand. I applied two coats using both a 1 1/2" angled paintbrush and paint pads.

While the interior paint was drying, I moved onto the staining process. Besides wanting to change the stain color, there was some water damage on one of the doors. Also, the lower doors were dry and needed attention.

Using CitrsiStrip, I removed the sealer from the doors & drawers.

This time, I also removed the faux drawer front that is above the bottom doors and stripped it. I didn't realize it was removable the first two times I painted the cabinet. I discovered that the was screwed in. It also had a big, rusty nail holding it in place but after the use of some force, I was able to get it off the cabinet.

What I found when trying to strip this piece of wood was that the first coat of paint I had used 30 years ago soaked into the wood. This picture shows the result of 2 coats of stripper.

After 3 coats of stripper and then sanding, I still could not remove all of the green paint.

Luckily, the dark stain (Minwax Provincial) was dark enough to cover the leftover green.

Since the weather was nice, I took all the wood pieces outside to use oil-based stain. With a piece of t-shirt, I applied one coat of stain and let it dry outside.

Once the stain had dried, I brought all the pieces inside at night and applied two coats of Minwax polyurethane using a paintbrush.

As the stain was drying, I worked on the cabinet. Using a sanding block in 150 grit, I lightly sanded the paint on the cabinet. After wiping it down with a damp cloth, it was time to paint. Using a small & large painting pad and small paintbrush, I applied two coats of Pratt & Lambert's Sandhill Crane.

I applied the first coat while it was in the living room and then the second coat once it was upright.

When the paint on the cabinet was dry and the polyurethane on the wood was dry, I reattached the doors. Instead of buying new hardware, I spray-painted the handles silver to match the hinges.

I love the new colors on the hoosier!

Suggested materials:
  • Pratt & Lambert Sandhill Crane paint   (Local hardware store)
  • Painting pad   (On hand)
  • 1 1/2" paintbrush   (On hand)
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Jeanne
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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