here is a pair of recent projects, both armoires (or clothes-presses, or chifforobes, or wardrobes…please choose your favorite terminology)(but not a favorite piece – i hope you will like them equally well!) and both done in shades of white, but that is where the similarities end. so, here we go with a little compare and contrast exercise.
my lovely client wanted hers, a pretty reproduction pine press, to be very soft and antiqued. here is a before and in-the-works (including her inspiration shot):
this was a perfect opportunity to break out some of my new annie sloan chalk paint. after a light sanding and cleaning (we removed the old wax and sanding dust with citrus solvent), two coats of annie’s old white were applied, followed by her waxes – clear and then tinted. the chalk paint goes on beautifully without priming, even over the knots, and leaves some yummy texture. a little buffing, and it’s done (though not re-assembled or in its new spot yet):
this second one is a vintage mahogany chifforobe, that, though cracked, still has plenty of distinguished service to offer. it is for mrs. jones’s own bathroom…one of the first pieces we bought as newlyweds. found at a local junque shop, it was missing its mirror, which i replaced with brass chicken wire. it has been in a bedroom (with gathered fabric behind the wire) hiding all kinds of things for years. before:
early in our bathroom renovation brainstorming, selena pulled a tear sheet of a vintage-era bathroom furnished with a fancy chest-on-chest dresser that had been painted in high-gloss white. in translating the look to our project, she immediately zeroed in on the armoire as a candidate for re-doing. perfect size, perfect storage…brilliant! i called emmett fiore, and he sent some hollandlac tinted to benjamin moore’s glacier white (# oc.37) on the next ups truck. after sanding the surface lightly and wiping it down with a tack cloth (but leaving the crackled varnish alone), i used enamel undercoat followed by two coats of the lac. here is the after, and some details:
i love the effect the glossy white has on the old varnish underneath – kind of mock croc.
the old wire locker baskets (now holding soap and washcloths) are from one of my favorite etsy shops, haven vintage.
still to come: all the deets on the new bathroom & laundry room…but here at least you can see one the fab thomas o’brien sconces that selena chose, along with the flooring and subway tile she tracked down for us. her (genius!) idea to mirror the long wall opened things up in a dramatic way.