Greetings fellow procrastinators! So, did you finish your project? Today is the day to link up your after photos and show off what you finished (or didn’t finish, for that matter!). Don’t worry, we won’t embarrass you too badly if you didn’t do your project. (Here were the before photos if you want to see who had good intentions, LOL!)

As I told you all last week, my project is finished (don’t look too closely, I had to do a little touch up and I haven’t quite finished but ALMOST!)! Hooray! It was a way bigger project than I really felt like tackling but I guess that is where the procrastinator part came in, I have had this cabinet for years and years. I never liked the tone of wood but I knew it had a cute shape that would be perfect as a painted piece.

This cabinet actually originally belonged to my sister many years ago and I couldn’t get her to take it back. I tried to give it back when we moved up to Washington, really I did. She just wouldn’t take it! But once she sees how cute it is now she is going to be GREEN with envy, I know it. Too bad for her.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

I am so glad I painted it! I really wanted to get this done because I am SO behind on decorating things around my house. I knew that the weather would not last so I forced myself to get out there and do it.. I used the last four warm sunny days to paint and it has been a bit rainy, windy or too cool ever since!  I intended to get new hardware on it, but after looking around I couldn’t find anything that I liked that would fit, so I decided to just leave the original pulls on and maybe age them a little at some point.

As I mentioned, this project took about four afternoons to complete (only spending about 2 hours or so on each day). It was a lot to paint, since I not only had to paint the outside of this piece but the inside of the pull down desk which as you will see below, has a lot of cubbies and things to paint.

So how did I do it?

I tried out my new favorite paint, Caromal Colours! Caromal Colours is a sponsor of The Inspired Room. Remember I told you about Caromal Colours back when we talked about making a gilded pumpkin? My friend Patty sent me a distressing kit so that I could try painting my cabinet! I used the Country Living decorative finishes in two shades plus a toner to get the richer, aged look.

I started out with putting on a coat of colonial blue, then a chipping coat (which didn’t chip anything, it just sealed in the first layer of paint) followed with a coat of bayberry, then I sanded it lightly with my electric hand sander to distress it a bit, and finished it all with the toner.

This paint is not like any other paint I’ve used before. It is very thick. The entire time I was painting I was SURE I was doing it wrong. You can really do it any way you want, stipple it on with a brush, brush it on, whatever works. I did more of a brush stroke but I think next time I will just “moosh” it on! The first coat will look messy no matter what you do, but that is OK! In the end, it all came together and looks like an old painted piece full of character.

I think it is the toner that really pulls it all together. You can see what a difference the toner made as I started to paint it on the two doors…the one on the left is before and the one on the right is after the toner. I know I’ll use Caromal Colours again, I can think of so many projects for this paint!

If you want to see a video of a project using Caromal Colours, my pal Kimba put one together awhile back so I wouldn’t have to {grin, thanks Kimba}.

Don’t have access to Caromal Colours paint? You can find lots of tips for painting furniture right in this e-book! This is an affiliate, but I only recommend things I believe in and you’ll learn from this book!

So how did things go for you on your Procrastinator Project?

I’m so excited about all the cool projects you were working on! Go ahead and link up on MckLinky directly to a procrastinator after (or progress) post. Any other random posts will have to be deleted since this is a specific kind of party — no party crashers. Then link back here to The Inspired Room so your friends can come see all the other projects, okay? If you don’t have a blog but you worked on a project, feel free to share in the comments!!

Have fun and visit as many AFTER posts as you can! And leave everyone a little comment love, will you please? Thanks for being a part of the fun and making me feel like I was not the only one out there working on this!!

If you’d like to try this paint on your kitchen cabinets, check out this video before and after of kitchen cabinets! It is very inspiring!

To order your own Caromal Colours paint kit, click on the button below and Patty’s website will explain how to order it!