She painted this heavy-looking antique armoire Gardenia, but the inside is the best part
It’s tall, dark and scratched. The veneer is chipped along the bottom, there are gouges and holes in the wood, the doors have no handle, and the inside is grimy from years of storage. In a secondhand store, it looks like more trouble than it’s worth.
The armoire wasn’t the problem, all that dark wood was. Christy, who writes the blog Confessions of a Serial Do-it-Yourselfer, found one at the Salvation Army. It was marked $199, but a 75% off sale brought it down to $50. “The wood made this one very heavy looking before, so paint is just what it needed!” she says.
Why a big wood piece reads so heavy
An armoire is one of the largest pieces of furniture in a room. When every surface of it is the same dark wood, the eye sees one solid block, and that block takes over the wall.
Christy kept the outside quiet. She painted the body Dixie Belle Gardenia and the trim Cotton. Inside, she went the other way. “Because I played it so safe on the exterior, I knew I wanted to use a fun pop of color for the interior!” she says. She painted it Dixie Belle Secret Path and added decoupage paper to the back of the right side and to the drawer fronts. “The interior honestly might be my favorite!”
Saving the boldest part for a spot people don’t see at first works on dressers too: a botanical pattern on just two drawers can turn a solid-color piece into one you look at twice.
From grimy to Gardenia, in order
- Clean it properly. She used White Lightning cleaner, 1 tablespoon per half gallon of warm water, then rinsed with clean water.
- Fill the damage. Chips and holes got wood filler, sanded smooth with 220-grit paper once dry.
- Block bleed-through. One coat of white Bonding BOSS primer, then a full 24 hours to cure. She stresses that the dry time matters.
- Paint and protect. Two coats of Gardenia on the body, two coats of Cotton on the taped-off trim, a light sanding with 220-grit, then two thin coats of Dixie Belle Clear Coat in Satin.
- Do the inside last. Primer, then Secret Path, then the decoupage paper, applied with decoupage gel and smoothed with plastic wrap, which glides over the paper and helps prevent pilling.
Plan B, if decoupage feels fussy: skip the paper and let a bold interior color do the surprise on its own. Leave the drawer sides unpainted either way, as Christy did, so the drawers keep sliding smoothly.
Before you paint a secondhand antique
Check what you’ve got first. An antique with real value may be worth more restored than painted, so a quick look at marks and construction is worth the time.
Plan your sealing, too. Christy ran out of time before sealing the interior and planned to come back to it. Inside surfaces that hold clothes or linens take wear, so don’t skip that step.
Finally, a tall piece with doors needs to stay upright. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says anchoring furniture with doors, drawers and shelves to the wall prevents tip-over injuries and deaths. Do it as soon as the armoire is in place.
Keep the outside calm, save the color for the inside, and anchor it once it’s home. That’s the trick.