LITTLE BUT MIGHTY REDO

Little But Mighty Cabinet Redo

This little shelf may seem little, but man it was a HUGE redo!

Do y’all ever have those projects? You start out thinking oh this is going to be an easy breezy redo…. NOPE!

This little shelf was given to us years ago and was in our daughters room for YEARS.

She has had layer after layer after layer of paint! Eventually she lived in our garage and was used for shoes.

Recently we added 2 “shoes shelves” to the garage and I thought this would be the perfect shelf for my grandson to use in his room here.

Well… over a week later she is finished. I’m still not in love with the end result, but it will be perfect for storing his books.

Here we go…

Items used (it’s a lot🤦🏻‍♀️):

1. Stripper
2. Plastic wrap
3. Scrapper
4. Mineral spirits
5. Spray bottle with 1/2 water and 1/2 bleach
6. Sander
7. Old rags
8. Stain of choice
9. Crackle glaze
10. Paint of choice
11. Paint brush
12. Antique wax
13. Sealer
14. Glue gun or wood glue
15. Book pages

 

Click HERE for the products

Stripper

I first started the stripping process. The first stripper I use was good for nothing EXCEPT burning my skin with the splatters from it. I then switched strippers and covered it with plastic wrap. After doing this 3 times and leaving it for 24 hours each time this was SO MUCH EASIER!

Apply stripper, cover with plastic wrap, leave 24 hours. Remove wrap and use your scrapper to loosen paint. Once you loosen up the paint by scrapping repeat the process. Now repeat the process one last time.

Now wipe the cabinet down with mineral spirits using an old rag/cloth.

(Don’t use the stripper in this picture!!)

Click HERE for the stripper to use!

Sand

I use a palm sander and love it. I used a higher grit (80) for this project.

Just smooth the wood edges and remove any left over paint with the sander.

Once I’ve finished sanding I sprayed the entire piece down with bleach water and left it for a couple hours. I then sprayed it again and gave it a good wipe down.

Stain

I used 2 different stains and honestly I didn’t need to do this. I was thinking the different stain colors would show through the crackles but it really didn’t. I am starting on a new project today using the same crackle product and for this one I’m only using a dark stain all over.

Basically whatever staining process you want to use.. go for it. You will only see peeks of the stain come through the crackled paint.

Crackle

Apply the crackle product all over using a paint brush and going the same direction with each stroke.

Let this sit for around 45 minutes (until it’s tacky).

Paint

After your crackle is tacky now you can paint. Apply the paint the same direction as you applied the crackle glaze.

This product is pretty awesome. You can see the crackle almost immediately.

Click HERE for products used.

Except for the glaze…. click HERE for the GLAZE!

Book Pages

This was a bit of a disaster 🤣! Basically to make a SUPER LONG process short… I first used mod podge and applied the book pages… HATED IT… attempted for 3 days to remove the pages. Finally gave up and used my glue gun and added different book pages.

My best advise for this is NEVER use mod podge and book pages unless you are sure that’s what you want 🤣🤣!

⬆️⬆️HATED THIS ⬆️⬆️

Antiquing wax

Apply the wax with a dry cloth working it into the cracked and then wipe off with wet cloth.

Overall I will for sure be using the crackle product again and I may venture into lining a shelf with book pages in the future, but I will make 110% sure it’s what I want! Also finding the right stripper will speed future products up tremendously!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

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