Furniture makeover challenge

As you may have seen from my previous post I have been kindly asked by Direct Blinds to join in with their ‘Renovation Sensation’ competition. They gave me £100 to find, buy and renovate a piece of furniture of my choice – the perfect competition!

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

I chose to buy a cabinet from eBay that I need for my new home office. I have taken a lot of inspiration from modern Scandinavian interiors so I want the room to be light, bright and white with vintage touches here and there. The cabinet I bought is a great shape and I love the glass doors but it has a very dark, orangey veneer that is not so pleasant – definitely not the lovely teak of a mid-century cabinet. I tested sanding a patch but it is made of some sort of composite wood so no beautiful grain or colour to reveal.  Therefore, my first task was to brighten it so it doesn’t absorb all of the light from the room. I then tried to give it a bit of character and add some more storage to the top for all my craft supplies. Here’s how I did it…

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

Renovation

What I used (anything with a price next to it I bought for this competition with the £100 budget):

Cabinet £30

1 litre of Annie Sloan pure chalk paint £18.95

Annie Sloan clear wax

Two sheets of 3.5cm pegboard (60 x 120cm with 1.8cm hole centres) £8 each

Pegboard hooks £13.79

Batons, screws and drill to mount the pegboard

Mini Moderns Snow Peggy wallpaper remnants

PVA glue

Clear varnish

Paint brushes

Clean rag

Scissors

TOTAL: £78.74

Step 1:

I mounted two sheets of pegboard above the cabinet to add extra storage for my craft supplies.

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

Step 2:

I used pure chalk paint for the cabinet as you can apply this paint straight onto the veneer with no need to sand! Sometimes, with varnished or veneered wood the stain can bleed through the chalk paint so you need to do a tester patch first. If it does come through do a base coat of Zinsser stain blocker. I then used the clear soft wax to add some extra protection to the cabinet. I used eggshell on the pegboard as it needs to be really strong to withstand wear and tear.

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

Step 3:

I then used Mini Moderns wallpaper remnants to line the shelves of the cabinet and the pattern reflects the pegboard wall. I spread a very thin even layer of PVA glue over the shelf and laid the paper over it very carefully to ensure I didn’t trap too much air. If you don’t have wallpaper you could also use wrapping paper but use a very small amount of glue as otherwise it will wrinkle.

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

Step 4:

I put the wallpapered shelves into place and then varnished the paper to make it hard wearing and to avoid scuffing.

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

After…

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

Furniture makeover | Apartment Apothecary

So, I have finished the first corner of my new home office – better start stuffing that cabinet with all my craft supplies and finishing off the floor! Thank you to Direct Blinds and fingers crossed that I win this brilliant competition.

Katy x

 

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30 Comments

  1. 10th July 2014 / 7:50 am

    the pegboard is genius.
    For some reason i always gravitate towards brown and it’s so dark and heavy. Every time i buy something now i scream “stay away from the brown!”

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:30 am

      A bit of brown is good but too much in a small space can be too much. Also, it never looks as good in a new build flat – much better in a big period home like yours x

  2. 10th July 2014 / 8:33 am

    I love this! And I love how neat and tidy it all looks. 😉 Good work, I hope you win. Leanne x

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:31 am

      I promise it won’t stay that neat and tidy for long 😉 x

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:31 am

      Thank you, Sarah-Lou x

  3. Louise
    10th July 2014 / 10:06 am

    That looks fantastic – I may be revisiting this page when I get my own craft room set up!

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:31 am

      I’d love to see what yours looks like, Louise x

  4. Cecile
    10th July 2014 / 10:57 am

    Wow! Amazing transformation. Love the Peggy theme. I’m also very excited by the chalk paint and not needing to sand pieces like this! Thanks so much for the great ideas 🙂

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:32 am

      Chalk paint has officially changed my life!

  5. 10th July 2014 / 11:07 am

    Katy this looks amazing- I’m sure you will win! I LOVE the pin board idea for the back – it is completely transformed! x

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:33 am

      Didn’t win, Rachael – boo!! Never mind, it spurred me on to get it all sorted so no real loss x

  6. 10th July 2014 / 12:07 pm

    Wow, this is amazing! Great work, & very inspiring.

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:33 am

      Thanks so much, Dylan. Means a lot coming from you 🙂

  7. 10th July 2014 / 1:30 pm

    Wow! Beautiful and useful! Such a great transformation!

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:34 am

      Thanks so much, Laura x

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:35 am

      *blushes* xx

  8. 10th July 2014 / 6:05 pm

    It looks fantastic, Katy! Great job!!!

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:35 am

      Thank you, Judith! Too kind x

  9. 10th July 2014 / 6:35 pm

    This is brilliant! Love the new Peggy!! X

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:35 am

      It’s all about Peggy! Thanks, Lori x

  10. Gigi
    10th July 2014 / 10:06 pm

    Seriously- you are very talented. AMAZING!
    Now can you transform a massive chest of boring drawers I have into something amazing.

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:36 am

      *blushes again* x

  11. 23rd July 2014 / 3:01 pm

    Super project Katy! Love that you have named the cabinet Peggy. Especially as there is a peg board above 🙂

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 11:36 am

      Thank you, Claire xx

  12. 27th July 2014 / 12:02 pm

    Hi, I also entered this comp! Just catching up on what all the other entrants madeover and I love what you did! I’m quite smitten with pegboards 🙂

    Antonia x
    tidyawaytoday.co.uk

    • katy
      27th July 2014 / 2:01 pm

      Hi Antonia! I just popped over to your lovely blog and I love your entry – those old school desks are amazing. Look forward to following your blog x

  13. Antonio
    27th April 2015 / 9:13 am

    Hi Katy,

    sorry for my English, but I’m from Spain and I don´t understand some words very good. So, my question is: What is eggshell? It is not really eggshell, is it? Is it a kind of paint? Did you use the chalk paint on the pegboard?

    Thanks!
    Regards,

    Antonio

    • Katy
      Author
      28th April 2015 / 4:32 pm

      Hi Antonio. Eggshell is a kind of paint – is is between matte and gloss. I did not use chalk paint on the peg board because chalk paint gets scuffed too easily as it is matte. I used satin paint on the pegboard as this is harder wearing and does not mark as easily. Hope that helps and hope you understand! 🙂

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