This week’s guest post is submitted by a fabulous Stylish Patina reader and fellow furniture re-imaginer, Lindsay Whatley of Mommom’s Desk. She lives just outside of Washington DC with her husband, Matt and her sweet pup, Lola. Lindsay taught elementary school for five years and decided it was time to make a huge career change – she enrolled in graduate school and graduated from the Corcoran College of Art and Design – her art school experience helped her realize that she was a meant to create, imagine and build.

Lindsay started reimagining the ordinary with her late great grandmother, whom she lovingly referred to as “Mommom”. After her great grandmother passed away at 102, she was left with an orange painted desk that she had in her home. This desk served as inspiration for Lindsay to bring new life and color to well- loved pieces.

The project Lindsay is sharing with us today is a vintage kitchen cabinet and hutch that she found on Craigslist. Lindsay thought the hutch was cute and loved its vintage, retro style but knew it needed some personality.

Here is a before picture of the hutch.

Lindsay began the task of reimagining this piece, here is a step by step of her process:

1. First Lindsay removed all of the hardware, drawers, and cabinets.

2. Next, she heavily sanded all surfaces using a heavy duty power sander and 110 grit sandpaper.

3. She taped off all surfaces that she planned on leaving natural wood and primed the remaining surfaces using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White.

4. After allowing the Old White to dry, she painted the hutch, cabinet, doors, and drawers with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in English Yellow.

5. To add more of a unique style, she used ModPodge to decoupage decorative paper on the top surfaces of both the hutch and the cabinet.

6. She allowed all pieces to dry and set overnight before sanding the entire piece again to achieve a more aged and distressed look. This time she used 220 grit sandpaper.

7. The cabinet top and hutch top were both sealed with Polyurethane to ensure durability and easy care. The remaining surfaces were sealed and buffed using Annie Sloan Clear Wax.

8. Her final step was to replace the cabinet and drawer pulls. How cute are the fox pulls?! The hinge hardware is all original.

Here are the after photos of the hutch.

“I love the final result of this piece! It embodies a contemporary style while still maintaining the retro feel that won me over originally,” said Lindsay.

We just love the detail and thoughtfulness of each aspect of this piece! The color is bold but fun and the hardware is just adorable. Lindsay worked on this project over the course of a weekend – a pretty amazing result for a weekend of fun furniture transforming.

Lindsay purchased her paint products at Stylish Patina! Here is a list of the products she used for this project.

• Annie Sloan Old White
• Annie Sloan English Yellow
• Annie Sloan Clear Wax
• ModPodge
• Polyurethane Satin
• Fine Decorative Paper (her favorite detail!)
• Decorative cabinet & drawer pulls

Thank you Lindsay for sharing this amazing project! You can see more of Lindsay’s designs on her blog and on her Facebook page.

You can purchase Chalk Paint and other DIY products in our shop or our online store.

Also, if you are interested in learning more about chalk paint and painting techniques sign up for our May basic paint class!

If you have a project you’d like to share, please email before and after images to press@stylishpatina.com!