A Surprise Gift

We were given a china cabinet and decided we didn't have enough room in our home to keep it.  Our good friends had just bought their first home together so we thought it'd make a great gift for them.  I loved the pretty oak finish but decided we wanted to paint it black.  And of course, make it look more warn and handed down.  Here's the before...

 

We decided to take the top decorative piece off.  We removed that and the doors to start priming.  I don't have a picture of the primed piece before we started painting.  It was tough to remove the hardware and hinges but Here it is ready to paint....

 

We used a glossy black paint that we had and it went on really nice.  I did two coats of black over the one coat of primer.  These two pictures show some of the distressing.   

 

 

I wanted the hardware to stand out a bit so I decided to spray paint it a cream color.  It turned out so nice and still had a little of the brass showing through.  Just how we like it!

We used two coats of poly to seal the entire piece from chipping. 

 

Here it is in all it's glory in their home! 

 

We did a surprise delivery when they were out of town and boy was that fun! They were surprised to see their new cabinet when they walked in the kitchen.  It's such fun to bless those who have blessed you in your life:)