This lovely painted antique wardrobe was found on the Hamilton mountain from a very nice man who had a huge garage and a sleeve of tattoos. His wife had intended the antique to be a wardrobe for their grandchild’s room but a lack of time had them let it go.
Here it is in my workshop ready for me to get started on it. I started by filling and sanding all the major dings and this provided me a better surface for the paint to adhere to.
I then applied two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White to all the surfaces. After they dried I noticed that the wood was still bleeding through so I applied a third coat!! This gave it a good uniform finish.
The next day I began by doing a couple of different distressing applications. I began with the door and applied a coat of wax and then distressing the edges of the door. You will notice in the before picture that the door was already stripped of the stain on all its edges. This I unfortunately overlooked and did not stain the stripped sections to allow all the door edges to match the rest of the cabinet. I will need to do some repair to this door for the whole unit to look more cohesive.
I then began distressing the drawer faces and rest of the unit. This was definitely the look I was going for. I then waxed the rest of the cabinet and it looked perfect!!
Like I said above, I needed to match the door to the rest of the unit so I stained all the distressed edges that I made on the door in hopes of the wood matching the rest of the cabinet and I am happy to announce that it all worked out.
The large door on the front of the unit looked a bit bare and the unit looked unbalanced so I decided to do a special application of an applique with a Martha Stewart stencil and spackle product that I purchased at the Home Depot.
Because the unit was taken apart prior to me purchasing it I needed to put all the pieces together again like a jigsaw puzzle. I had to glue and reattach all of the mirror pieces and secure them to the main unit.
The original mirror was in good shape so I decided not replace it. The whole unit was then waxed with the Annie Sloan Clear wax to provide durability.
The cabinet measures 40″W x 18″D x 60″H and would look great in many different areas of your home. A baby room, a little girl’s room or even in the front hall or foyer of your home to provide extra storage.
“Fabulous Freddie” Wardrobe Dresser certainly looks fabulous. I’m really pleased with the way it turned out. The sun even came out tonight long enough for me to snap these great photos of it.
This is a fine example of painted furniture and what you can do to create your own style at home.
Shelley says
Great job! Love this. Do you know how old this piece is? Thanks in advance!
Shelley says
Also, are you selling it? Asking price please.