Gentry's Armoire

Okay, so I HAD a before picture, I did! Somehow though, I lost it. Don't ask me how, I just simply don't know. But, I'm going to guess that the cause was the same as how I've lost everything else in my life: my energy, my sleep, my clean house, my previously size 4 body...yep, KIDS! Oh well. This piece that Ashleigh wanted me to do for her precious daughter Gentry was a family piece. We call it an armoire, but I do believe the 'furniture' term for it is actually chifforobe. A chifforobe is generally a piece that has a closet for hanging on one side and a set of dresser drawers on the other, whereas an armoire is either all closet or closet above and only one to two drawers below. It had been in the family for a while and had seen some wear and tear. While old pieces like this are generally solid wood, they are also a cheaper solid wood veneered with a more expensive wood. That was the case here.

This is the color of the stain that covered the entire piece before

Ashleigh's house is gorgeous. They bought an older home in a very sought after and historical neighborhood here and have renovated it while keeping true to the period and architecture. The woman has my fantasy...sigh. So Gentry's room was getting a bit of an update as well and this piece definitely needed some TLC. After Ashleigh and I spent some time trying to decide on a color, she picked a gorgeous pale mustard color. This is so exciting for me because I've never really used much yellow before. This is another reason why Ashleigh's jobs have been so awesome, the girl loves color and isn't afraid to use it and experiment with it. So I got to painting. It's a big piece so I whipped out the handy-dandy sprayer my father bought me and went to town. I had some Darth Vader moments for sure...

...not so glamorous!

Umm, yeah. Moving on, this is the piece fully sprayed with two coats of the pale mustard color

So pretty already. Did I already mention that I LOVED this piece? I do, I find it swoon worthy really. Next came the fun part, and yes I'm being sarcastic. It's not hard or bad work really, but I had to 'distress' the piece, which meant sanding. Hours and hours of sanding. It needed to look aged and chipped. I actually did have fun trying to decide where to sand and what to make look distressed. My husband will tell you though, that everything (seriously everything) in the entire garage was covered in yellow dust. The tool boxes, the freezer, the floor, the walls. Yes, even my husbands trailer which I am still trying to make up for...he was not happy with me. I would normally have done this outside, but it was cold people! Cold and windy to boot. So, after all the sanding, I had to clean things up a bit before the next step. The next step was the true finish in the aging process. I stained it. Over the paint I rubbed on a dark walnut stain and just covered the entire piece.

The stain brushed on

The stain wiped off and the piece finished and in it's home.

I believe that it was one of the most loved pieces I did for Ashleigh's house. It was one of the most fun pieces I've ever worked on as well. It still doesn't have hardware because we just can't seem to find the perfect thing for it yet. But, it's home and loved. When it has hardware I will post a true finished picture. Ashleigh has been the most fabulous client and I'm so thankful to her for her trust and for what she has done for my business.