For a few months now I have been wanting to find an old armoire for my bedroom. But of course the pieces I like were big and hundreds of dollars, but I kept looking and while at my Mom's for Thanksgiving I found this.
It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it had potential so I thought about it for a couple days and went back the day before I left town to give it another look. It was priced at 60 dollars... pretty great for a solid wood
big old hunk of furniture, but I was still on the fence about it so I thought I would at least see what kind of deal I could get to help make up my mind. SO... I asked the very nice sales lady if they had had the piece long and if they would consider taking less and guess what she said it would be going on sale 50 percent in a few weeks and that she'd give it to me for that now! Of course I said yes, 30 bucks that's my kind of bargain. And to my surprise when I went to pay it was an additional discount day and I got another 20 percent off... so 24 dollars... a broken back and crammed SUV later this beauty was mine.
Thankfully I managed to get the thing home safely without being able to see out my windows during the 6 hour drive and even unloaded the beast BY MYSELF!!!! Don't ask.. it wasn't pretty! Needless to say I let it sit for a few days to regain my strength. :) Then I got to work... first I took off the awful hardware, sanded and primed the entire piece inside and out. Then I decided to paint it off white to go with the rest of my "in the process of being re-done" bedroom.
And since the more worn in the better, I couldn't just leave it alone. I took my electric sander and roughed up the edges and raised spots where it would normally wear. I know it is insane to repaint something old and then make it look old again, but it's a better old... right?? At least that's what I tell myself :) And to take it one step further those spots that were sanded I used a q-tip dipped in dark stain...
rubbed the stain on those spots...
and then immediately wiped it off.
You can go back over it if you want a deeper stain, but don't leave it on long or your paint around it will also be stained. I think it just adds a little more character.
I also opted to get rid of the 1970's brass pulls and went instead for these iron looking handles.
I like how they stand out on the light background and off set the distressed finish.
I plan to put some hooks on the inside of the doors for jewelry, but for now.....
This is how it looks... not too bad for 24 bucks and a little paint huh?!? :)
It goes to show how much paint and a little elbow grease can transform an old piece of furniture. I'm still on the hunt for the "perfect" armoire (one a little bigger that I can hang things in), but this one is a great substitute and will have a place in my house even after I find that "perfect" one. Hope this inspires you to find a fun old piece of furniture and make it new again.. or at least new old :)
Good Luck, Lindsey :)
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