You've gotta start somewhere...

This phrase rings true for a lot of things in life.  In this case though, I'm talking about taking the plunge and attempting to paint my first piece of furniture.  For me, the whole painting furniture craze came about with Pinterest and with me trying to find stylish, cheap ways for us to decorate our new home last year while we were renovating it.  So as my husband, FIL, and father all worked on some of the more heavy duty, manual labor type of projects (i.e. busting out bath tubs, knocking down walls etc), I scoured antique malls/thrift stores and flea markets for furniture to paint.  I present to you my first furniture painting experience, which quickly spiraled into the DIY bathroom vanities and many other pieces throughout our home. In this post, I'll tell you what I did for this specific piece...with each piece I've done I've tweaked certain things because no piece is the same and it depends on what you want the end result to be. 

-STEP 1- FIND THE ITEM YOU WANT TO REDO.  In this case, it was an old record cabinet from a local antique mall that I paid way too much for to be painting, but you live and you learn right. I picked it because I liked the size and shape of it and knew where I wanted it to go (in our foyer with a mirror above it that I already had purchased from a different antique mall).

-STEP 2- PREP YOUR PIECE.  As I've mentioned, this was my first painted piece so I can't say that this is the best way to do it, but this is what worked on this particular project.  I'll be honest, I didn't sand this one and believe it or not the primer and paint still stuck and doesn't peel off!  I used the Glidden Gripper Primer in gray this time (same stuff I used on our bathroom vanities) and gave this one good coat.

-STEP 3- PAINT YOUR PIECE.  Given the fact that this was a small item, I was able to paint the entire thing with a $3 sample jar of paint from Lowe's!  The color I used was Swim by Valspar.

-STEP 4- ANTIQUE YOUR PIECE.  I knew I wanted this to have a "worn" look to it so I bought the Valspar Antiquing Glaze.  This stuff was super easy to work with.  I painted this on with a normal paint brush (i.e. that you would use to paint walls) in sections and then gently wiped with the grain of the wood with an old t-shirt.  If you want the glaze to be darker, then just apply more.  

I finished it off with a decorative knob (Hobby Lobby has a whole aisle, and can't beat their prices/coupons).  Voila!  You have a revamped, and colorful accent piece for your home!