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Friday, October 30, 2015

Lyrical Before & After: A Beatles Blackbird Makeover For A Vintage Credenza





I love before & after makeovers! 

When I bought my first house it was an estate sale. That means everything inside of the
 house came with it, whether I wanted it or not! There was lots of old dusty stuff inside,
(some was fun to go through, some, not so much) and among everything, was this 
vintage credenza.  I didn't have the heart to throw it away (of course, because I 
save EVERYTHING!) so instead, I stashed it away in my basement thinking that 
one day I will paint it or do something with it. Hence, this makeover. Enjoy.


"before" Poor, plain old boring credenza before I added my magic to it 
and made it look super awesome. 



After!


Ooo and aahh fancy painted finished credenza



Here's how I did it:
After cleaning the cabinet and then sanding it down lightly, I gave it a coat of green paint

to match my dining room walls (does not look green in photos, but it is green!) Once
the paint dried, it was time to add my lyrics, or my lettering. I knew I could not paint the 
lettering freehand because well, I drink too much coffeeMy secret weapon for near-perfect lettering?

Large unmounted rubber stamps!


To create the lettering I simply laid out all the words using the letter rubber stamps to give myself an idea of the spacing. Then I very lightly stamped them onto the cabinet with the rubber stamps and a regular ink pad. Once I had the words all stamped out, I simply  painted over them freehand with acrylic paint. Check it out!
Tools of the trade: Folk Art shiny black acrylic paint and #4 & #6 synthetic brushes (the #4 worked better because it was closer to the size of my lines)


Easy as PIE! 
Ok, so I was a little shaky at first but found that the quicker I worked and the longer, more decisive brush strokes I used, the better my result. 





Please disregard the piles of dishes and stuff strewn about my 
 basement workshop. 


Lookin' good



The final finished result. I love it.







I'm super happy with the final result and love this "new" little addition to my dining 
room. Have you made over any old pieces of furniture lately? If so I'd love to hear 
about it, so be sure to leave me a comment below!