FINDERS KEEPERS!

Butchers Trolley

In Australia, most cities have an annual yearly council clean up. By looking around, you will be surprise by what some people threw out. I found this little cupboard, and after asking the owner’s permission, I could not wait to get home to transform this little beauty.

With all my projects, I try and save as much as possible. I usually keep an eye out for left over paints at my local charity shops, or sometimes Bunnings have paint, that’s pre mixed and then marked down. If you not after an exact colour, you could find yourself a bargain. I prefer the little test pots, especially for projects like this, where you do not need a lot of paint, and can ask for a specific colour.

Before

I think it was a school project at some stage, if you look at how skew the little doors is. But I love the little imperfections!

You will need the following:

Small wooden cupboard

Palm Sander

Meduim grit sandpaper

Olive oil to treat workspace

2 door knobs

Paint – acrylic, enamel or chalkboard paint

4 small rotatable wheels

A small towel rail to add to the side

Sheets of pewter for the high relief inserts on the doors

(you could skip the pewter part, but I kind of like the how it transformed this little cupboard.)

A great idea is also to mosaic the doors, or paint it with black

board paint and write messages on the doors.

Black Chalkboard Paint $5 K-Mart

More information on where to find pewter at the bottom of the page.

I found the images on Google, but there is also books for sale with different pictures, or you can use your own ideas.

Masking Tape

Self healing craft mat

Two A4 sheets of felt

Embossing Tools (Find at craft stores) More info at bottom of page

Pencil

Baby oil

Crafters knife

Bees wax

Glass dropper

Turpentine

Patina (Craft Stores) More info at bottom of page

Spirits

Metal Polish

Cotton wool

Paper pencil (Craft Stores) More info at bottom of page

Rubber Gloves

Safety Glasses

You can buy the propper Annie Sloan Chalkboard Paint from selected shops in Australia. (More information at bottom of page)

In America, another popular name to go by, is Martha Stewart. Chalkboard paint have a slight rough feeling to it once it’s painted. But after giving it a light sanding and applying your wax protection, you can hardly feel any roughness.

I found a recipe on the internet to make your own chalkboard paint.

You will need:

Around half a cup of acrylic paint. (This is where sample pots work well)

Half a teaspoon of white tile grouting

Mix the paint and grouting, and make sure to get rid of any clumps.

The great thing with chalkboard paint is, that you don’t need a lot or at some stages any sanding. The grout in the recipe will make it stick to almost anything. But if you want to make sure the paint will last for years to come, you can remove old paint, especially paint that is flaky. You can usually remove that with a palm sander or sanding paper.

For tougher paints, I use the cheapest paint stripper I can find at the hardware store. I usually get the “Diggers Paint Stripper” from Bunnings, and it last for a very long time. Just make sure to wear gloves, a mask and safety glasses. Also a good idea to wear an old longsleeve top to protect your arms. Believe me, it does feel a bit like a bee sting when it ends up on your bare skin. Paintstripper comes in a gel consistency. You simply paint it on, leave only for a few seconds, and take the paint off with a metal brush or a steel type pot scrubber.Wear gloves. You have to work quick, but this is the easiest way ever to get rid of paint. It’s a good idea to try this technique on a part of paint that’s not too obvious. Never start on the front of your cupboard.

Wipe your wood with a damp cloth, to remove any dust before painting.

If your cupboard have sharp corners, it’s always a good idea to sand it slightly and almost round it. But that is also personal taste.

If you mix your own chalkboard paint, work with small amounts. The grout will thicken quickly and it will get hard to use, and you will loose paint. Keep a container with clean water nearby. I find it works better to dip my brush in the water every know and then, when my paint starts thicken up. You can also use this type of mix to make a “white wash paint”. The more water you add, the thinner the paint become, and you will then start seeing the wood grain.

Work on a sheet of plastic or a painters cloth. Tip your cupboard upside down and paint the bottom part first.

If you decide to use normal acrylic or enamel paint, you will need to apply a primer for the paint to stick propperly.

If using your chalkboard paint, no matter what type, it is a good idea to paint atleast two layers. After one layer I thought it looked really bad, but then after the second coat I changed my mind. Leave your paint to dry before you give the painted areas a light sand. This help to get rid of the roughness you will feel. You can also do two different colours on top of each over, and then lightly sand the top layer back so you can see the bottom colour come through in some areas. I like to paint red as my base colour, and then mint green over that. Red and green really compliments each other. I bought the propper Annie Sloan wax and applied that all over the painted area.

I used the natural wax, but there is also a dark antique wax in the same range. You will usually apply the dark wax over the natural to get an antique look. Depending on what end product you desire. And the great thing is, if you kind of over used the dark wax, you can wipe it back with the natural colour wax. You will have to polish the waxed area with a soft cloth to get the best end result.

And finally after all the painting is done, I treated the unpainted working area with olive oil. At first it will make a few dull spots, but after a few layers it turned out beautiful.

If you want to attempt the Pewter inlays on the doors, this is how you do it:

Make a paper template that fits perfectly in your door panel. Cut your pewter sheet with a craft knife according to your paper pattern.

Work on your craft mat or a thick layer of newspaper.

Decide where you want your picture to be and stick down with masking tape.

That is to prevent your image from moving and not ending up with double lines. Use your small end on your embossing tool to go lightly over the image. Remove the paper once the whole image is transferred and paint a thin layer of baby oil over the image area.

Place your sheet of pewter on one layer of felt. The raised area should know facing upwards. Again using the small end of the embossing tool, lightly trace the image for the second time.

Now turn the sheet of pewter over for a third time, and with the small end of the embossing tool, trace just inside the lines of your image. Add your second layer of felt.

Now you can use your paper pencil, ( A pencil made out of rolled up paper) to lightly emboss the areas you want to be raised.

Remove the felting and work on your craft mat. You need a hard surface. The raised area should now face upwards. Again using the paper pencil and smooth out the area around the embossed parts.

Changing back to your two layers of felting, your embossed area facing down again. Do more embossing, turn over on a hard surface and smooth out with the paper pencil. Repeat this technique untill you are happy with the amount of embossing you have done.

Your sheets of pewter will look something like this at the time.

Place your sheets on a soft surface, so it wont dent. The hollow side should now facing upwards. Clean the back with spirits and cotton wool. This is to remove any oil on the surface. You need to melt your bees wax over low heat. Use your eye dropper to fill the hollow areas with the wax.If your dropper is glogging up from wax, just place the whole thing in hot water. It will melt the wax again. When all the areas is filled up with wax, you can leave to harden.

Clean the front of the pewter panels with either spirits or baby powder. Again to remove any oil on the surface.

For the next step you will need gloves, otherwise your hands will turn black and stay black for a long, long time.

Use a small piece of cotton wool and dab with patina. Work in small circular movements. You will need to use a clean piece of cotton wool if you need to apply more patina. If you use the same cotton wool over and over, a chemical reaction will already have taken place and the patina will lose its purpose. Your work will turn black. Don’t leave for too long, otherwise it get harder to rub back. As soon as the whole sheet turned black, place it in a container with clean cold water. This will stop the development. Dry with paper towel.

Now you need to polish your art work with metal polish, like Silvo or anything available from the supermarket.

Use a new piece of cotton wool everything it gets too dirty. Repeat the buffing process until it’s as shiny as you would like it to be. I left my background darker, so the image show off better. I wanted mine to look like old metal inserts.

Stick down your panels. The best glue I found for this, is where you paint glue on the back of the panel and on the wood surface. Leave it for some time and then stick it down. Make sure to put glue in the corners.

Turn your table upside down once again. Work on a soft surface. Screw on the rotating wheels. Turnover and add the towel rail to the one side.

Add the knobs or handles to the doors.

If there is unwanted holes, you can fill it with some of the sawdust from sanding, mixing with a small amount of wood glue. Leave to dry and sand before painting.

The good thing about mixing sawdust and glue is that it is an exact colour match to your wood.

The End

I’ve painted the wooden spoons with some left over paint. The silver tray is painted with blackboard paint to write daily inspirational quotes.

Suggestions

After I made my own chalkboard paint, I bought the proper Annie Sloan paint from Brocante in the Barossa Angaston South Australia. I must admit, the proper Annie Sloan chalkboard paint was a lot easier to use. Find them on http://m.facebook.com/BrocanteInTheBarossa

Pewter, Paper Pencils, Patina and embossing tools is available from Frendz Art & Craft Supplies in Clarkson Perth. Contact them on

+61 8 9407 8860

Frends@frendz.com.au

www.frendz.com.au