My TV Cabinet Makeover with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

If you seen some of my earlier posts about my painting escapades, here and here, you’ll know I’m a fan of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I’m a big fan mainly due to the ability to go straight in with minimal preparation, because that part is boring and I am lazy!

During my living room makeover (see the start here – and the big reveal here) I wanted to keep some costs down as we were paying a fair bit for labour costs for plastering, building and redecorating.  So I decided to have at my TV Cabinet with Graphite Chalk Paint.

The husband was a little dubious and wanted to buy a new cabinet, but I convinced him to let me try it out first and see how it looks.  And he has had his portion of humble pie and loves the cabinet.  It also fits in nicely with the new scheme and against the Stiffkey Blue wall.

The TV Cabinet we have is from the Hartford Range at Next.  It’s a rustic style Oak effect with rough edges and little knots to make it look used and aged.  It took the husband a full 5-6 hours to put together and after much swearing and sweating it came out nicely, and is a good sturdy piece of furniture with decent storage.  However, it wasn’t going to fit into the new scheme.  So out came the paint.  Here’s the before:

Perfectly pleasant and neutral but I wanted to give it new life.

As usual with Annie Sloan, you simply need to clean the wood, let it dry and then splash the paint around.

I used the middle sized Annie Sloan brush and decided rather than the ‘brush it all over’ effect, I went with straight lines:

Yes there’s a load of rubbish in the background, I couldn’t edit this lot out so I’m sorry for the tragic board games and junk. Don’t judge me!

However, back to the cabinet, which instantly makes it looks more modern and fresh.  Well pleased!  After the first coat it dries to a grey-charcoal colour.  The great thing with Annie Sloan paint is the speed at which it dries.  Within an hour I can get the second coat on.

The best way to approach a piece of furniture is to turn it upside down first, and do the underside (or at least the pieces that might be seen – I don’t always do the parts that won’t be seen – refer to my previous comment about my laziness!).  Once that’s done and dry, turn it the right way up and carry on.

This picture is after the first coat, you can see it dries a bit lighter.  I then went ahead and put a second coat on.  You sometimes have to put some water in the paint for the second coat, put a few drops, give it a good stir and slap it on.

When the paint was drying I decided to spray paint the handles in a matt gold spray paint.  I used a spray primer underneath to make sure the gold stuck nicely to it.

Once it’s painted you have the option to go with clear, dark or the new Black Wax.  I had a full tin of dark wax so decided to go straight on with the dark wax after the second coat of paint.

You put the wax on with a brush and then wipe off the excess with a soft cloth.  I would recommend an old teeshirt, cotton (not terry) tea towel or an old sheet.  The lovely thing about the dark wax is that it gives a lovely rich depth and texture to the colour.  You can see the rich tones (I hope) in this photo:

The most time consuming thing about Annie Sloan is that once the wax is applied, leave it for as long as possible before touching it or putting any objects on it, as the wax needs time to harden and cure.  I applied three coats of wax, a day after the previous coat.  I then left it about 3 weeks as the living room was being decorated, but a week or two is probably sufficient.

Here’s the finished version after 3 coats of wax.  This transformation cost me £18.95 (I know – Bargain!!)  for the paint (I already had the waxes, spray paint and brushes – but you may need to factor those costs in if you don’t have them).

Do you have some furniture that doesn’t fit?  If you’ve got something that you don’t want to get rid of, then I can’t say enough how easy  and cheap it is to give it a new lease of life!

Annie Sloan paint doesn’t have to mean Shabby Chic, if you look at the fabulous rich colours you can really give it a modern look.  Why not have a go?!  Let me know how you get on!