Chalk Painting: The Microwave Cabinet

Hubby had his part of the new microwave cabinet done…now it was my turn.

When Hubby passed it off to me, it looked like this…

I decided to go with cream Annie Sloan chalk paint.  I used it for my kitchen island and want things to coordinate so that was my reasoning in picking cream.    I like the distressed look with dark wax so that’s what I tried to achieve.

Here’s the cabinet painted and waxed.  I opted to not paint the inside.  I like when they look old inside.  I’ll be cutting and putting linoleum on the shelves anyway.  I do that instead of shelf paper and love it.  Hubby is working on getting the hardware put on.

Hubby and I aren’t on a time schedule with our projects…when they get done, they get done.  He’s always busy at the beginning of the month with meetings plus they have been making hay and cutting oats on the farm which means long days and a tired Hubby.

Originally we thought we wanted the drawers to be stained.  We tried but we didn’t like the look so I had to go back and paint the drawers after I had painted the cabinet.  I thought I’d show you how I do it.

Day one…two coats of paint.  It dries quicker than any other paint so it’s easy to do two coats.  The next day I started the wax.  Before I can do that I “rough” it up.  I sand areas off the drawer.  Typically I work the edges and where the drawer pulls will go.

Then I’m on to to clear Annie Sloan wax.  You can see the right side is waxed and the left isn’t.

After all of it has wax on it, I rub it in and smooth the layer of wax out.

After that a little bit of dark wax goes on….See?

Then that gets really rubbed in.  I don’t do this all over…just in spots to simulate wear.

When I’m done, it kind of looks like a dirty drawer.  That’s the look I’m going for.

I can’t wait to see this all together.  The cabinet was such a mess when we originally bought it.  It’s fun finding the diamond in the rough.  I think this piece will be just that.