Well, you’re either going to love this next makeover or think I’ve lost my mind.  I may have.  Wait until you see this china cabinet makeover!!! 

I have good friends and colleagues.  So good in fact that the local delivery company I use just brings me free furniture from time to time!  This china cabinet was rescued from an old house at some point and had been sitting in his garage for too long.  Ready to get rid of it, he brought it to me. It has amazing details and turned legs, it just needed a little bit of new life.

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Around this same time, Dixie Belle Paint Company announced a friendly challenge to try to get six colors on one piece of furniture.  For some furniture painters this is no big deal, they mix and swirl and blend with the best of them, and usually have more than six colors on a piece I’m sure.  But with my more traditional, classic style, I had no idea what to do with six colors for one piece. Here are the colors: Mermaid Tail, Honky Tonk Red, Buttercream, Sand Bar, Kudzu and Colonel Mustard. There’s not even blue in the mix (blue is my favorite).  Okay, time to get creative.  At first I could see a beachy theme china cabinet – almost like these are beach colors with bright surfboards and colorful sunsets.  

I about got to this point when I remembered I had seen a painting with poppies – that Honky Tonk Red is really a bright poppy red.  A quick google search for a “poppy painting” and I found one that pretty much had all 6 colors right in the painting.  I took a risk and thought I could at least try to transfer the painting to the china cabinet. 

Let me just take side path here for a second… when you are a creative person, who also loves to paint, there is nothing so joyful as having 6 bright beautiful colors available with 6 messy paint brushes.  I was just having a blast. Not knowing at all if this would turn out, and being okay with it if it didn’t.  It’s just paint.  I could have painted right over all those layers if I didn’t like it.  This was way outside my comfort zone of furniture painting, and well worth the time to just relax and have fun – no expectations. 

I eventually broke out my little 1/2 inch brush and went over each base layer with more paint to create a more textured look.  

I would let each layer dry, walk away for a bit and come back for more.  It was just too fun.  Finally I got to where I liked it – a little crazy, but good. A china cabinet sure to brighten up anyone’s dining room for sure! 

I decided the glass should be something a little bit special, so I had a piece of seeded glass cut at a local glass shop, it’s just the prettiest finishing touch!  The inside of the cabinet was painted in Sand Bar, I wanted to keep that very neutral since the outside of the china cabinet has plenty of color.  This would be a fun piece to display dishes, or perhaps to use as a bookshelf? 

I distressed all the edges to give it even more interest and texture, it’s not a perfect painting by any means, so some sandpaper would only do something good. 

Seeded glass + colorful books = 😍

The most colorful china cabinet makeover I’ve ever done for sure.  What do you think??  Would you be so bold as to put this in your home?  

I won’t know for a while if I “won” the challenge or not.  I’ll keep you posted though! 

Until next time, stay creative and open a new color (or six)!!
Jenni