DIY French Funiture

Bonjour monde blog!

Comment eat to us aujourd' hui?

Oops guess I got stuck in French mode. Today's project was suppose to be completed today but a little hitch on the craft process would delay me another week so I decided to do this as a two parter since it is actually "done" as is.

I've been talking about this project for a while now and it's been driving me crazy that I haven't been able to share this with you. I have been working with my brother to get this done. He supplied this little cabinet and said do what you want with this. It was going to get thrown away.  After a lot of research (Pinterest) 

I finally go the idea I wanted to do. French style. Which I suppose is a fancy way to say vintage or rustic. I don't know if i was fully successful with the French style but it turned out really good.

First of all I'm doing this blog on my phone. I will edit later but...seriously this is how much I enjoy doing these blogs and how excited I am to share this project with you.

So for the moment you all have been waiting for... Or at least I have been waiting!

Ok I will give you a minute to ohh and ahh over the piece. Not impressed you say? well wait until you see the before...

Ewww. Yuck... Who can see the potential in that? Well first my brother than I did. 

First thing we did...Yes I say we not because its a french theme but because my brother helped a lot. There was a lot of razors and loud tools being used. 

We tore the top off. It was beyond saving. Didn't like it didn't need it. Moving on.

I took the door off. Removed the shelf and the drawer. 

Then I sanded it down. Got all the loose pieces off and made it paint-able. 

This part was time consuming. Of course the whole thing was time consuming because I didn't use spray paint. 

Gasp! What is that she said she didn't use spray paint?! How on earth did she survive?! Well it was tricky but I managed. I bought a can of interior flat paint. Found it in the clearance section of Walmart for $3.50. Well painting this sucker like that took forever and a day. But it paid off because it turned out really well...still totally going to use spray paint for my other painting needs but at least I tried to think outside of the can. 

Ha it looks green. Its not. Its beige. So after I painted it all up nice and pretty I now had to make it vintage looking. Of course all the pieces that were banged up and cracked made this a lot easier. 

I used an acrylic paint. A dark gray color. (Think it was called pavement). I didn't want to paint it on too thick so just using a small brush I dabbed in area's and just spread the paint around giving it a sanded look. 

I did this mostly in the front on the legs and on the drawer. 

I also added some of the gray on the door frame so it would match a little. Some areas were a lot darker than I wanted so I went over it with the original beige paint. Just dabbed it with a  little brush to tone it down a little. 

Now it was time to do the door.

The grate that was in the door originally was pretty cool but it was all rusty and bent and not the direction I wanted to go in. It went in the trash. 

I knew I wanted to go with the Paris theme once I learned the style was called "French style" It seemed appropriate. I remembered seeing some pretty Paris themed fabric at Hobby Lobby the last time I went so... Off I went. 

Finding the perfect fabric we decided to play it safe and get a yard of fabric. But each project is different and I have a lot left over. 

This is another part my brother had to step in and help. Luckily my family has had an upholstery shop since I was born so I knew I could count on some one to staple my fabric to the door frame. But if you are not lucky like me than my next option would be to use some sort of tack. Whatever gets the job done. 

So after dealing with the loud dangerous staple gun (Thanks brother!)

The door looked something like this. He centered the picture so one of the Eiffel towers was in the middle. He used a piece of chalk to outline the door to get the size he needed. Making sure the fabric was tight he just stapled all the way around. Once he was done he cut the extra fabric off. (He did that to because...well you know I am not allowed to play with razors.)

Nice and neat. 

Attaching the door was a tad tricky and required a back track of some sanding and wood removal. 

Basically the door gained a few pounds with all the paint and wouldn't fit anymore. So that was an oops. 

Again that was a brother fix...He was playing with a knife this time! I don't recommend doing that. Be safe use the right tools. Don't ask me what the right tool for that would because I have no idea. I am just telling you not to do the knife thing! I will not be responsible for any missing fingers.

Craft at your own risk. 

The original knobs were all yucky and a greenish color so I went to the knob aisle in Lowes and picked out some new ones. (Yes a whole aisle just for knobs!)

Phew this blog is a lot longer than the others have been. See I knew I would make it up to you. 

After attaching the door it was complete...well for now. I told you this was going to be a two part blog. 

I will give you a hint of what is going on it next. 

It requires a printer (Ink Jet apparently)

Paint thinner

And a rubbing device. 

I really wanted to include that in this blog but when you don't read all the instructions like sometimes I don't. You miss important details like if it makes a difference if you use a laser printer or an Ink Jet. So stay tuned for that part of the blog. 

Now knowing what it looked like before don't you think this is pretty? 

Of course you do!

Don't worry the pictures will get better, once I get back from vacation I am going into serious camera buying mode. The phone pictures just aren't cutting it anymore. 

Any one have any suggestions? 

The supplies used for this project:

Old cabinet

Paint (Interior Flat)

Brush (Duh)

Sand paper 

Fabric

Staple gun/ Staples

Knobs

Acrylic paint

I usually post the estimated cost but honestly I don't remember. I didn't go to cheap on this one because well this was more of a "one of a kind" projects. I just wanted to do it because I could. 

And sometimes these blogs are about the frugalness but sometimes its about being original. 

I hope you enjoyed tonight's project. I can't wait to show you the rest of it!

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See you next Thursday!