There are moments in my life that I will forever cherish, days that I will remember as special and unforgettable. My wedding, the birth of my children, days I visit Pottery Barn...no wait, what???
Pottery Barn. Pottery Barn. The words alone are music to my ears, thus I repeat myself. Oh, Pottery Barn, this home schooling mama, domestic engineer, budget savvy girl loves you, but you're killing me. I walk into your lovely showroom and fall in love with everything. E-VER-REE THING. And I do find our "Opposites Attract" relationship just as ironic as you meant it to be. How is it that a city girl such as myself can love anything that has "barn" in it? Or better yet, how does your high end, somewhat overpriced (mmhmm-you know) products draw me, a "shop the sales" kind of girl. But I have relented. You win. I want it all. Just wrap it up and put it in my pretend dream home.
Andover Cabinet-weathered walnut finish
We just moved from California were it seemed Pottery Barn stores didn't exist in my area except online. Now, I have several around me. I LOVE it. LOVE it, and I hate it. We have what you might call a love/hate relationship. I Love going into the store. I hate leaving with nothing purchased. What's a girl to do?
Their rustic, organic look mixed in with timeless, luxurious pieces is beautiful. So pleasing to my eye. So pleasing to my heart. Unfortunately, not so pleasing to my wallet. Pottery Barn does inspire me, though. Whenever I visit, online or in store, I leave thinking, "I can do that". I can stack books that way or chunk candles together with a mirror behind them. Yes, yes, I can do this. Then I get brave. Perhaps a little to brave. I think I can buy an armoire or buffet table and make it look "Pottery Barn-ish". I mean all you need is an old piece of furniture, paint or stain, and some sandpaper. All things I am plenty stocked with. So, I will work to make a piece of furniture I love from a piece of furniture I have.
My armoire doesn't have the curved top, and the bottom of my doors were cut out for glass inserts. We had to measure and have glass cut to fit into the doors. The piece sat in our living room for years housing our big box t.v. Now that we've moved, updated to a flat screen, and need storage furniture in our bedroom, I decided to update this little beauty. Here's my LL (Lewisville Love) original.
I used Rust-Oleum's frosted glass in spray form. I've never frosted glass before so I expected it to act just like spray paint. I shook, sprayed, and....nothing. I shook and sprayed again and nothing??? So I decided to read the directions. It always helps to read directions before use.
It was done at this point, but then I realized I forgot to buy knobs for the bottom doors. Arrrrgh. I still haven't gone back to Home Depot to get two more, but I'll get there soon.
and after
Pottery Barn. Pottery Barn. The words alone are music to my ears, thus I repeat myself. Oh, Pottery Barn, this home schooling mama, domestic engineer, budget savvy girl loves you, but you're killing me. I walk into your lovely showroom and fall in love with everything. E-VER-REE THING. And I do find our "Opposites Attract" relationship just as ironic as you meant it to be. How is it that a city girl such as myself can love anything that has "barn" in it? Or better yet, how does your high end, somewhat overpriced (mmhmm-you know) products draw me, a "shop the sales" kind of girl. But I have relented. You win. I want it all. Just wrap it up and put it in my pretend dream home.
We just moved from California were it seemed Pottery Barn stores didn't exist in my area except online. Now, I have several around me. I LOVE it. LOVE it, and I hate it. We have what you might call a love/hate relationship. I Love going into the store. I hate leaving with nothing purchased. What's a girl to do?
Their rustic, organic look mixed in with timeless, luxurious pieces is beautiful. So pleasing to my eye. So pleasing to my heart. Unfortunately, not so pleasing to my wallet. Pottery Barn does inspire me, though. Whenever I visit, online or in store, I leave thinking, "I can do that". I can stack books that way or chunk candles together with a mirror behind them. Yes, yes, I can do this. Then I get brave. Perhaps a little to brave. I think I can buy an armoire or buffet table and make it look "Pottery Barn-ish". I mean all you need is an old piece of furniture, paint or stain, and some sandpaper. All things I am plenty stocked with. So, I will work to make a piece of furniture I love from a piece of furniture I have.
Here's what I started with. I didn't have any before pictures of the actual piece of furniture I "potterybarned," but here is a similar armoire of what mine looked like. Knotty pine furniture is nice...in a log cabin. We bought our armoire from a thrift store about 3 years ago. Ironically, this piece was being sold at a thrift store too. I guess there's not a high demand for these kinds of pieces.
My armoire doesn't have the curved top, and the bottom of my doors were cut out for glass inserts. We had to measure and have glass cut to fit into the doors. The piece sat in our living room for years housing our big box t.v. Now that we've moved, updated to a flat screen, and need storage furniture in our bedroom, I decided to update this little beauty. Here's my LL (Lewisville Love) original.
Remember that black paint I used here for the nightstand, well I had plenty of it to finish this armoire. I didn't sand before painting this piece. It was already pretty rustic and I didn't even primer it. I just slapped on the paint. I don't usually go for the shabby chic look, but after one coat of paint, the natural wood came through a bit so we decided to go for it. Although a large piece, I used a paint brush, like below, not a roller.
I painted a second coat then lightly sanded the edges with 100 grit sand paper.
When it got up to our bedroom after paint, sanding, and a coat of polyurethane, it looked like this.
I needed new knobs and still had to put the glass into the doors. Knobs are easy. Shop, purchase, screw in.
Love these "old world" knobs from Home Depot. Now what to do with thse bottom doors???? I didn't just want to throw the glass back into the bottom doors. The armoire would be housing things we didn't want to be seen in the open like Mr. Lewisville's vintage receiver, our dvd player, clothes, you know- things. So, I decided to frost the glass.
I found out you have to wait 10 minutes to see the results. Oh! Wait to see the results. So I waited and they came out beautifully.
So before
and after
Not bad for a knock-off. I paid $40 for the armoire 3 years ago, $40 for the glass 3 years ago, $16 for 4 knobs, and $5 for frost spray. I already had the paint from other projects. So for a little over $100 and some time in my garage, I got a nice PB inspired armoire.
And by the way, I went ahead and picked up a buffet table and a small console table I'll be re-making PB style. Stay tuned.
Blessings,
Lisa
Linking up to these fine blogs!
I am the same way with Pottery Barn, I peruse their sites and magazines for inspiration!
ReplyDeleteIt looks great--love the frosted glass!
ReplyDelete