The Making of an Antique Cupboard

You’ll have to be a little patient to see the “reveal” of this project, because I feel like I need to explain how it came about and the process first.  Don’t worry – the full project is shown toward the bottom of the post, but wait for it, okay?

You may recall that about this time last year, I brought home a TON of antique windows, and among them were a bunch of the tall ones seen here behind our barn loft stairs.

I’m not really sure if these were windows, because they are so narrow and long, but I’m assuming they are, just because of how many of them there were.  I’m assuming they must have been sidelight windows.  I’ve sold a bunch of them that my husband and I converted into chalkboards, but I’ve held back a few of them for myself, hoping to come up with a way to use them.  I knew I wouldn’t use them as a window, and I already have several chalkboards, so I wasn’t sure what I’d turn them into, until I saw an antique cupboard, that belongs to Maria @ Dreamy Whites.  Then I knew they were destined to become something like it.

When my husband woke up on Saturday morning, I told him I wanted to go buy  lumber to build the cabinet (with the implication that he’d go with me to help me figure out what to buy).  He must have wanted some peace and quiet, because he didn’t really respond, but he got dressed and I got ready to go. He came back and said, “Is there something else you need in town?”  When I said there wasn’t, he responded that I didn’t need to go if I didn’t want to – he could get the lumber by himself.   I tried not to act too overjoyed, but I was perfectly happy to stay home and work on other projects, while he went lumber shopping.

I printed out a photo of Maria’s cupboard, and he made notes of what the measurements of our cabinet would need to be to fit the glass windows that we would be using.  Printing it out in gray scale, to save on color ink, ended up being a good thing, because seeing how her cabinet looks in white/gray print helped me decide on my paint colors.

Later when he returned with the lumber, I was in the midst of my projects.  He looked at me and said, “I suppose you want me to build the thing too.”   (BIG Happy Smile!)  I think he knew it would be far easier to do it himself, then to watch me flounder my way through it, calling him every 10 minutes for help.  I did my best to just stay out of his way, and by the end of the afternoon, he had the main part of the cabinet built.  Is he good, or what?!

The next day, he added the crown moulding at the top, and the shelves inside, then I stained the outer edges, in preparation for the paint that would go over it.  I didn’t stain the inside, because that part wouldn’t naturally get chipped up and I wanted a really clean, bright backdrop for the things I would be displaying inside the cupboard.  I also didn’t sand any of the wood at all, in preparation for painting.  I wanted all the texture I could get from unsanded wood.

Everything beyond this point was trial and error.  I was using darkly stained, naturally aged antique doors on a cupboard build with freshly-cut pine wood, so I needed to find a way to make them look as if they had always been together.  My plan was to use milk paint, so I would get a chippy look, revealing some of the dark wood under the paint.  The problem was, I knew milk paint would not chip over raw, stained wood.  That result only occurs when it is used over previously finished wood – either paint or varnish.  I figured I’d get that effect on the antique doors, but wasn’t sure how to make it happen on the fresh pine boards, and I didn’t think the stain I had added would achieve that.  I decided to dry brush some light gray paint on the wood, hoping that the milk paint would chip over it, revealing some light gray and stained wood underneath.

I also used some Vaseline in a few spots, to act as a “resist”, so that both the stain and light gray paint would for sure show through.

And, on went the milk paint.

The milk paint did resist the Vaseline, but it only crackled in just a few small areas and NONE of that crackled paint came off – even with light scraping.  It hung on tight, so I wasn’t going to get that chippy effect I was hoping for.

The other problem was, this slate color of milk paint is really pretty (Old Fashioned Milk Paint brand), but it has a blue undertone, and that blue tone just wasn’t wanted I wanted for this cupboard.  I had my heart set on more of a true gray.

I didn’t take photos of all the painting that transpired after that point, but I layered more of the light gray paint over the milk paint.  I did a sloppy, somewhat heavy coat, but I did it randomly – not complete coverage, so there were lots of brush strokes and texture, and so some of the wood in the joints and cracks was left unpainted.

Then I got a darker shade of gray paint, and added Blue Minerals Chalk Paint Powder to it, and did another sloppy coat over the light gray, being careful to ease up on the paintbrush to allow some of the lighter gray to show through where it had settled into the grain of the wood and the brush strokes.  I used the same process on the doors, except I didn’t use any milk paint on them, since I knew it was likely to chip like crazy and wouldn’t match the rest of the cupboard.  I used a wet rag to do some wet distressing of the chalk paint in a few areas, and I used coarse sandpaper to rough up some areas, but I did it as gently and as naturally as I could.  I did NOT want it to look like it had been artificially distressed.  I don’t know what the light gray color is called, but the darker gray outer color is Dover Gray from Lowes – the same color I used to paint my antique shop counter (you’ll be hearing more about it next week!)

From the numbered tacks to the slightly wavy glass, the windows-turned-doors make the whole cupboard look like an antique.I’m thrilled with the outcome.  I think it looks naturally aged, like a cupboard that has been painted several times in its lifetime and gotten some dings and dents along the way.  The sun was glaring through the window when I tried to take photos, so this is the only full shot I got of the cupboard, but I have lots of up-close photos to show you the displays I created inside.

I wanted lots of texture and subtle tone-on tone inside the cabinet, so I used a few ironstone pitchers, and a stack of flour sack towels, along with an antique magazine and book, and a pair of spectacles.

I love the bright white taper candles in a crock sitting next to the rolled, aged book pages in bowl.  The two tones side by side bring out the best in both.

I love, love, love drippy wax on candles, and I believe there is a fine art to getting the perfect drippy candle. I think I finally figured it out.  Set a burning candle in an area where it receives a “breeze” from just one direction, so the flame leans to just one side.  I had the candle on the right sitting next to an slightly open window and just a little breeze created those perfect drips.   Then there are buttons in a zinc-lidded jar and an old clock face.  Simple beauty at its finest.

If I could curl up and sit on this shelf with this little beauty of an ironstone pitcher filled with baby’s breath, and the assortment of cotton thread spools, you can bet I would.

A wire basket full of antique shoe forms and a stack of grain sack fabric, add a little industrial element to the cupboard.

I photographed it in my living room, but I’ll be moving it to a back bedroom, which will eventually (hopefully, soon) get remodeled as our bedroom.

See more creative Shelves, Cabinets and Cupboards HERE.

Blessings,