Table linens, bedroom paint and what to put in a china hutch

Prior to officially setting our wedding date, we were working on updating our bedroom. I love our bedroom. The room is the perfect size for a queen size bed and a few tables, and there are some nice, big windows and long white curtain panels. This summer we planted some climbing roses in the backyard that will look perfect through the window. Where we will get married with our friends and our families and our basset hound cheering us on.

When we bought our house, part of what we liked was that the prior owner had painted all of the rooms in deep, saturated colors. Liked, and hated. While I had always lived in apartments and mostly had white walls, and was DYING for color, our prior owner loved dark colors. Really dark. Dark forest green in the kitchen, dark toffee in the living room. Dark navy teal in the bedroom. At first I really loved the bedroom, it was dark and cozy. Cozy and caevelike. Just what you want for your sleeping den... but now, not so much. So about a month ago, I started coming up with plans for new paint, new white trim, new white slipcovers for our somewhat odd bed, new white furniture... you get the picture. Beachy in Minnesota.

When plotting on furniture, I started to think about grandma's china cabinet. It was in my mom's garage for fifteen years and I've been dragging it around with me for the last fifteen years. Family lore (at least, what I remember) is that grandma borrowed it for a bridge party from a neighbor and never returned it. The china cabinet (dining set, secretary and Regulator clock) were HEAVILY coated with paint. Grandma LOVED to paint her furniture. I remember a variety of colors when I was a little girl, but the final color was a dark, dark green. With an 'antique' glazing technique. Plus fifteen years in a unheated, fairly wet garage and another fifteen years of paint chipping and frequent moves. Here's what it looked like a month and a half ago:



It's not terrible. I actually liked the color and the shabby vibe it had. It looks more shabby in the photo than it did in real life. The worst part was the sort of musty smell on the inside that never really went away, no matter how many times I washed, how many bowls of vinegar I left to sit inside it or how many fabric softener sheets I tucked away to freshen things up. But even though I didn't mind the look, the boy that I live with was not as enthusiastic about the granny-chic thing that it had going on, and when we moved into the house, the china cabinet was moved straight into the garage as a 'maybe someday' project, or possible garage sale offering.

So when I decided to freshen up our bedroom, I thought the china cabinet would fit perfectly and be BEAUTIFUL refinished. I took off the doors, slid the glass out, removed hardware, hinges and went to the hardware store for a can of paint remover. I got a little can of zip strip, maybe a quart. Turns out there was WAY more paint than I had anticipated. There was the green, a few coats of beige, a coat of pink, and then surprise! A coat of faux wood. A coat of red. Some pink, porceline blue, anda lot more beige. Grandma really, really liked to paint her furniture. Total tally was two small cans of zip strip, two large cans (a gallon?) and a somewhat large bottle of slightly more safe for the environment and definitely less burning to the skin citris stripper, which actually worked well, but had to sit for at least 30 minutes (versus 10 for zip strip). I decided I didn't have the time to use the environmentally friendly variety. And I would wear long sleeves. I listened to the entire Twilight series on my iPod while stripping the china cabinet. All four books. But here it is in it's finished glory!

Check out that dark, dark blue on the walls!

We're so thrilled with how it turned out! Since I love the rustic shabby vibe, I decided to just finish the cabinet with Waterlox (we had some left over from our spring kitchen remodel and the butcher block cabinets). Waterlox brings a beautiful, warm color to wood, and a great feel. There was a lot of patina left on the cabinet after the stripping. It's still really evident on the cabinet, and a few of my friends are of the opinion that I should have stained the cabinet to even out the color.

I also got some great replacement knobs for the glass doors on sale at Anthropologie for $2.95 each. Grandma had replaced the original knobs with some clunky wood ones at some point which didn't look great. The black ones are so cute!

I couldn't really get the inside stripped very well. Bad angles, and the wood, which I think is birch, was really rough on the inside. I ended up painting the interior with a peach paint that I got on sale (an 'oops' can) for $5.00 at our local Ace. I sanded the corners and edges to give it a distressed look.

All in all, we love the china cabinet and can't wait to finish the rest of the bedroom!

And a extra special part of the china cabinet in its current state is that it's FILLED (well, not really, a little full) of linens I've started collecting at thrift stores for the wedding next year. We really want a casual garden vibe, and I'm on the hunt for white flat sheets as base tablecloths and a variety of yellow, cream, green and tea-stained tablecloths for the top layer. I did the tea staining myself on a couple of pieces of fabric, an eyelet and lace fabric that I liked the pattern and texture of, but one was a little dingy and the other was a little on the pinkish side. I'm loving the look of the fabric so far and have spent a little under $30, with about $15 worth of white sheets still on my shopping list. All at thrift shops for $2 to $6 dollars each. Rental costs would be around $200, so the thrift costs PLUS the personal look make me really, really excited!