Charm School Girl – Amy Howard at Home

While at garage sales you see things that have good bones but their exterior is beyond ugly.  Some can get past the ugly and some cannot.  I am one that can get past the ugly and see right to the bones and the transformation that can happen with a little TLC.   This little cabinet was sitting in the corner all by herself just like one of the kids on the playground that wasn’t allowed to put her toe in to play Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.  But I seen her sitting over there and quickly rescued her.  She was beautiful in her day but now she wasn’t so cute anymore but after I get done with her she is going to be stunning. 

As soon as Ace Hardware contacted me to paint their Amy Howard at Home Paint display I knew she was going to be perfect for the job.  Storage on the top and inside the cabinet and of course a color that would attract customers to come look at her and see what she was all about.   I chose Charm School (seriously I didn’t think of the paint name when referencing the school playground, I guess it just goes to show she was made for this project). 

With cabinets you can either paint over the hardware if you want that old farmhouse look (they painted over everything) or you can remove the hinges and pulls.  Put them in a bowl or jar marked with what they belong to so when it’s time to put it back together everything is in one place.  (take my advice, since I never do and wish I would).  John has spent many hours searching the garage for a hinge here, drawer pull over there, screws in a bowl with 17 other ones….. yeah it’s not fun at that point.

Charm School is a deep red with a deep pinkish tone to it; I really like solid coverage so I painted 2 coats of Charm School on the cabinet inside, and 3 coats on the outside, drawers, and doors.  Waiting in-between coats for it to fully dry.  You will know when it’s dry because the paint will look dull and chalky.  If you are impatient and do not wait for it to dry you will just drag the brush through the wet paint and cause it to pull away from the base wood.  Go weed the flowers or grab a drink and sit on the porch for a bit.  

I wanted a surprise for the person opening the cabinet so I then painted the inside with Tick Tock.  I do like my solid coverage so again it was another 2 coats to cover the Charm School.  Why did I paint it Charm School if I was going to cover it with Tick Tock you ask.  I like furniture distressed and when painting two colors you can distress to the 1^st color which is what I was going for on the inside.  Now that I'm blogging this I totally forgot to take a picture of the inside.  My bad.

After all the painting I grab my sander and distressed just the edges of the piece, being careful not to distress too much.   After sanding wipe everything with a lint free cloth to get all the paint dust off.  Next step was waxing.  Amy Howard at Home Clear Wax was pretty amazing, I’ve used a lot of waxes in my day and this wax is probably going to be a favorite (when used properly).   Amy Howard has paint brushes and I would recommend buying the brush, it’s amazing for paint and even better for waxing.  In the below photo you can see the dull chalky paint on the left and the right is where the Clear Wax has been applied with the Amy Howard brush.  I've never put wax on with a brush but it was super fun after I made plenty of mistakes trying to figure out the correct application procedure. 

 

I used the dark wax on her also, she really liked it and it gave some depth to the paint and the creases. 

I put her all back together including new door and drawer pulls but something wasn’t screaming…………LOVE to me…..  she needed a bit more pop.  Back up on my table and I painted a fun flower on the door with Tick Tock, distressed her again and another coat of wax.  Notice I painted after it was already waxed….. you can do that with this paint, no need to sand it off.  Which is a good thing for me cuz I change my mind lots. 

The next two pictures were taken with my real camera in the daylight vs my cell phone under florescent lights so the color is a bit different and more true to her real color.  

And here she is all ready to be delivered.

Charm School Girl feels amazing and she looks stunning.  Amy Howard at Home Paint is just what she needed.  If you would like to meet Charm School Girl in person head on over to Ace Hardware located within County Market and tell her Connie sent you and tell her that I miss her.  

It's like sending a child off to college when you work so hard on a piece and then....... she's gone and you can no longer control who will love her. 

Later....