Drexel: Part 1

A client has commissioned us to revive their beautiful, solid wood Drexel china cabinet that they purchased several years ago at an estate auction. What a great find! I’ve never seen anything like it! Though they love the china cabinet, the yellow just wasn’t doing it for them, and was an eyesore in their dining room. They considered having it refinished and sanded down to the wood, stained and polyed. They even got a quote from a professional! But in the end, they decided they wanted it painted with a shabby-chic look, and after stumbling across our website, they contacted us!!!

We started by removing the doors and putting aside all the hardware. Lucile and Blanche were a huge help.

We CAREFULLY removed the glass, then sanded everything down just a little. Enough that the primer would have something to ‘grab on to.’

Being pregnant and all (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), Nick is responsible for all the spray painting… but he doesn’t mind. I do have a paint-mask-respirator-thing that I use while sanding or painting with acrylic/latex paint. But when it comes to serious fumes, I’m just not gonna take any chances. Seems like pure common sense to me. Here’s the Drexel after Nick primed her. Kinda lovin’ it dressed in white!

Then we put on a nice thick coat of chocolate brown. The reason for this is so that once the final ivory coat is on, we can sand down the edges and details here and there and have the chocolate brown show through. Trust us, it’ll be awesome. She kinda looks great dressed in rich chocolatey brown, eh? Ok, the truth of the matter is that a piece like this would look incredible in just about any color. We feel lucky to have been chosen for the job!!

This is as far as we’ve gotten, but we wanted to give a progress report to avoid an excessively lengthy post when it’s finished. And because we enjoy leaving people on the edge of their seats.