Sometimes just a wee bit of paint is all a piece of furniture needs to be transformed. Case in point, this beech wood cabinet with a Simmons Juvenile Furniture makers stamp suggests it is for a child's room. But with the two deep drawers and middle cupboard what I saw was a whitewashed media cabinet or white sideboard buffet with farmhouse style.

The light blonde wood in excellent condition is the perfect candidate for a whitewash paint finish. Think of pickling stain but with a lovely matte chalk paint patina. I chose a highly transparent finish with just one coat of paint but it can be as opaque as you like with layers of white paint wash and I show you how easy it is.

White Sideboard Buffet With Farmhouse Style

It is Furniture Fixer Upper Day where six talented furniture painting friends come together once a month to breath new life into a piece of furniture. You can find links to the other makeovers at the bottom of this post. Last month I shared a tutorial on how to paint Arborite with my Retro Dining Table Makeover.

We are saddened to announce that our sweet friend, Larissa has left the group to pursue other blogging ventures. She will be missed but this isn't goodbye because we can still catch all her DIY adventures at Prodigal Pieces.

We are pleased to welcome our newest member, the very talented Denise from Salvaged Inspirations. If you are not familiar with her blog, you are going to LOVE her furniture makeovers!

Back to the sideboard buffet makeover. This is what it looked like before...

This post contains affiliate links so you can see what products I used or recommend for this project. At no cost to you, we receive a small commission if you make a purchase.

I had a clear vision for this makeover going in. Paint the cabinet pure white with heavy distressing, stain the top a medium brown, add these awesome Farmhouse decor transfers on the knobs and part of this furniture transfer to the front of the cabinet door. Sadly, they couldn't be shipped on time so onto plan B.

I added a surprise pop of color to the interior by painting the cupboard Upper Canada green. I used a mineral chalk paint which has a built-in sealer so no clear coat is required and it'll cure rock hard within 21 days.

Part of plan B was to add pretty handpainted floral knobs to the top drawers that picked up the green of the painted interior. I decided not to use them because they took away from the simple farmhouse charm. Instead, I kept the original wood knobs and painted them white and distressed to match the whitewash finish.

Unfortunately, the beech veneer top was a lot worse for wear and couldn't be stained. There was some uneven coloring in the veneer so I couldn't give it a transparent whitewash like the rest of the cabinet either.

Onto plan C, an opaque whitewash with four coats of paint and distress the heck out of it with a mouse sander.

I added Farmhouse typography onto the top but instead of a furniture transfer, I went all old school. More about that further down in the post.

Here's a close up of what the transparent whitewash looks like on the lower cabinet and the opaque whitewash on the top.

Part of the deciding factor for giving this piece a farmhouse style makeover was the skirt. Even though I believe it would be considered a craftsman or mission style base to me it had farmhouse potential.

The chicken wire frame sitting on top of the farmhouse sideboard is another DIY project. You can see how I made it here in my repurposed window message board post.

The little girl holding a chicken was painted by my Mom several years ago and is one of my cherished possessions. She was a landscape artist and rarely painted portraits so this is one of just a few.

Here's how I did it...

Prep the cabinet for paint

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is the most dreaded step (at least for me) when doing furniture makeovers BUT it is one of the most important for a long-lasting paint finish. You'll find many helpful tips in my How To Prep Furniture For Chalk Paint A-Z tutorial.

How to whitewash with paint

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the color Old White that I had on hand. When doing a paint wash the more water to paint, the lighter the wash. Typically a 1:1 ratio is used but I thinned mine to the consistency of milk. Sorry, I didn't measure but probably closer to a 2:1 ratio.

You can apply it with a lint-free rag (old t-shirt) or brush it on like I did. Wipe the excess with a lint-free rag before the paint dries. For larger pieces, work in sections. In spots where I got more paint, I used a fine mist spray bottle and just moved the paint with the brush to thin it out.

Like I mentioned earlier in the post, I only applied one coat of whitewash but on the top, I applied four coats.

Distressed farmhouse finish

After the paint dried I distressed along the edges and around the drawer fronts with 150 grit sandpaper where it would normally age over time. I also gave the area around the knobs a worn finish. On the top, I went crazy with a mouse sander, especially along the edges and corners.

Stencil and graphic add more farmhouse charm

Saddened I couldn't get the farmhouse furniture transfer on time but determined I would add farmhouse typography to the top, first I used this grain sack stripe stencil (not an affiliate link) with pewter grey chalk paint to stencil down the middle of the buffet top.

Next, I found this Huge Sign Making Bundle with 40 different design sets on Etsy (not an affiliate link) and printed the Welcome To Our Farmhouse graphic in png format and set to print on legal size bond paper. Instead of including step-by-step instructions on how I applied it to the sideboard, you can find a detailed tutorial in my Graphite Paper Image Transfer Technique post.

Painted with a script liner art brush and Hurricane dark grey chalk paint. Once the paint dried I distressed both the grain sack stripe and graphics with 220 grit sandpaper for a timeworn appearance.

Protect the paint with wax and clear coat

The cabinet base and drawer fronts are protected with white wax applied with a wax brush and buffed with my go-to car detailing wool buffing pad (any of these would work). Mine is meant to be used with a drill but I hand buff instead.

For added protection on the top, I used a water-repellent clear coat tinted white, thanks to a genius tip I learned from Kandice Just The Woods, my fellow Furniture Fixer Upper friend.

After giving the jar a good shake, I poured some Gator Hide onto a paper plate and mixed about 1/2 teaspoon of whitewash glaze.

Applied with a damp car detailing foam applicator pad (any of these would work) in long even strokes. I applied two coats with a 2-hour dry time between coats.

So what do you think? Would you whitewash wood furniture or is a solid paint color more to your liking?

If you have any questions about this makeover, please leave them in the comment section below or press the Contact Me button at the top of the blog to drop me an email. I love hearing from you!

Please join me to take a look at how my talented friend's transformed these furniture pieces. Press the links below to see the after photos and tutorials.

1. Girl In The Garage
2. Confessions Of A Serial DIYer
3. Petticoat Junktion
4. Just The Woods
5. Salvaged Inspirations
6. The Interior Frugalista (that's me)

I share my projects at these inspiring link parties.

Do you paint furniture indoors? If you answered yes, then this tutorial is for you. My sister asked if I'd paint her custom cabinet black with a distressed finish. Because I would be painting it in the middle of her living room, it would need to be distressed without creating a lot of dust. That's where a puck came in handy and not the kind you shoot around an ice rink. In this post, I'm sharing a dust-free tutorial on how to distress painted furniture with a wax puck.

How To Distress Painted Furniture With A Wax Puck

While this furniture makeover comes with a handy tutorial, it also came with a lesson but more about that later.

My sister planned on using the inside of the cabinet as a beverage bar and the outside as a media cabinet for her family room. It's a well-made piece of furniture but the honey oak just had to go. She wanted it painted black to match the handmade black painted tiered table I did for her last year.

I've included affiliate links in this post for your convenience so you can see what products I used or recommend for this project. What that means is that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, I may receive a small portion of any sales at no additional cost to you, which supports the costs of running this site. See my full disclosure policy.

Have you heard of a wax puck? 

They are 100% beeswax formed into a Round Puck for distressing furniture. In all honesty, mine had been sitting on a shelf untouched for probably five years. I normally distress with sandpaper only but after using the puck on this piece, I was surprised at how much easier it was. So much so that I bought another puck!

They are perfect for distressing furniture because the wax acts as a resist between coats of milk or chalk paint.

Dust-Free Wax Resist to Raw Wood 

1. When you want the raw wood of a furniture piece to come through the paint, rub the wax puck directly onto the wood BEFORE painting.
2. Simply rub the wax puck along the edges, corners, and around the doors where furniture would naturally wear over time.
3. Apply the first coat of either milk or chalk paint. 
4. If it requires a second coat, like mine did, apply the second coat.
5. Once the paint is dry, lightly rub a piece of 220 - 320 grit fine sandpaper along all the areas where you applied the wax and the paint will come off easily where it was waxed.

I should point out that this media cabinet was painted with FAT chalk paint in the color Raven.

Distressing Layers Of Paint With Wax Resist

Using a wax puck is ideal when painting layers because when you distress the top color, the base color shows underneath. And you don't risk sanding it back to the raw wood - like what often happens without using a wax resist.

1. Paint one coat of a base color. 
2. Once the paint is dry, rub the wax puck along the edges, corners, and around the doors where furniture would naturally wear over time. 
3. Paint one coat of another color. Don't be alarmed if the paint covers the waxed areas.
4. Once the paint is dry, lightly rub 220 - 320 grit sandpaper over the areas you waxed and the paint will easily come off those areas without sanding down to the raw wood.

Protecting the paint

With a wax brush or lint-free rag, apply clear beeswax over the paint and buff to a matte finish.

To add some jewelry on this rather plain cabinet, I had these Vintage clock face knobs in my stash that not only looked great but worked with some of the other vintage elements in my sister's family room.

Once I finished painting the cabinet, we moved it out of my sister's living room and into her family room where it will be used as a media cabinet. I applied the protective wax there so it could sit untouched for at least 48 hours before setting the television and accessories on top.

The paint and wax take 30 days to completely cure. This photo was taken minutes after applying the wax.

Normally I like to stage my pieces before taking after photos but because this makeover was completed on site, I didn't get a chance to return to my sisters with my big girl camera and take beautifully staged photos.

The lesson I learned painting furniture on site

In my opening paragraph, I mentioned I learned a lesson with this makeover. Never EVER will I do a furniture makeover on site again! Oh my goodness, you don't realize how good of a set up you have until you're out of your element. It took twice as long to do this furniture makeover on site than it would have in my workshop.

I was in cramped quarters in my sister's living room where in the workshop I have lots of room to move about. Normally I have the furniture raised on a work table or wheeled dollies so I'm not working on the floor. Also, I roll around a piece as I work on my handy hydraulic mechanic's stool so I don't have to keep getting up and down. The old knees were killing me for days after this makeover.

But I got it done, my sister and brother-in-law were happy with their media cabinet makeover and it was Marco approved.

I hope you found my how to distress painted furniture with a wax puck tutorial helpful. Have I inspired you to give it a try? If you do and have any questions, don't hesitate to ask them either in the comment section below or press the contact me button at the top of the blog. Press here for more helpful tutorials.

I share my projects at these fabulous link parties.

With a pop of red and dark wax, it's so easy to add personality to a plain antique oak bookcase. The farmhouse charm was added with inexpensive fabric from the dollar store and I'll show you how I did it.

Last year three antique pieces of furniture landed on my doorstep from a local business who was moving. Yay lucky me! This bookcase is the last of those pieces to receive a makeover and because this one is staying with me, I painted it my favorite color.

Antique Oak Bookcase With Farmhouse Charm

If you've been following me over the last year, you may remember the other two pieces, an antique wash stand I repurposed into a coffee station and a farmhouse cupboard, that was very similar to this one.

Today is one of my favorite days of the month because it's Furniture Fixer Upper Day where I and five talented furniture artist friends come together to breath new life into six pieces of furniture. Links to all the makeovers are included at the bottom of this post. I've also saved the pretty before and after photos of this furniture makeover towards the bottom.

For last months challenge, I tackled a vintage classroom desk but that makeover had a few hiccups along the way that ended up being a blessing in disguise.

I've included a Materials List towards the bottom of this post. It contains affiliate links for your convenience so you can see what products I used or recommend to make this project. What that means is that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, I may receive a small portion of any sales at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure policy.

This furniture makeover is all about using what you have on hand. As long as the products are in the same ingredient range you can interchange the brands. For example, I used a clear wax and dark wax from two different brands but because both were beeswax, they worked beautifully together.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty details of the makeover, this is what the antique oak bookcase looked like before the...

Prepping the bookcase for paint

First I vacuumed the interior of the bookcase and gave it a good scrub with warm water, white vinegar and drop of Dove dish soap. I used an old toothbrush to get along the ridges because this guy was dirty.

Once dry, I lightly sanded with an 80 grit sanding pad to open the pores of the wood for the paint to have some bite. There were some scratches, gouges, and a cigarette burn (remember the days when you could smoke at the office?) on the top. I didn't repair those because, just like the scratch and dent lady painting this piece, the imperfections are what add character.

Judging by the watermarks, not only did a plant sit on top for some time, so did coffee mugs (and a cigarette) probably from many conversations that took place around this bookcase over the years.

Unfortunately, the stains didn't disappear after the first coat of paint so I brushed a stain blocker/sealer that I had on hand before applying the second coat.

Painting the bookcase

For this piece, I used FAT chalk paint in the color Red Barchetta and was surprised at the coverage after just one coat.

Normally I remove the doors before painting but these swung open enough that I could access all the surfaces. Besides, I was being lazy because it was nice outside and my lounge chair on the deck was calling my name.

Another shortcut I took was not taping around the glass panes. With my Zibra 1-inch square brush, I could cut around the glass with ease. Are you as impressed as I am with how little paint got on the glass?

The shelf brackets and door stopper were painted with Rustoleum spray paint in the color Colonial Red that I had in my stash. During installation, I was happy to see they were almost a perfect match to the red chalk paint.

Waxing the bookcase

I discovered my new favorite wax brushes during this makeover. Instead of my go-to flat round wax brushes, I used a medium round bristle paintbrush for the clear wax and a small round bristle paintbrush for the dark wax. I found I had more control over the amount of wax the brush picked up and the application. Also, the bristles were much softer against the fresh paint.

A little goes a long way with beeswax. I applied a light even coat, working in sections, leaving it on for around five minutes before buffing it with my favorite shoe brush.

The dark wax was applied heavier along the edges, over the joints and imperfections. With a lint-free rag, I applied light pressure and moved the excess wax over the rest of the piece.

Helpful Tip: 

Notice the plastic wrap sticking out of the dark wax tin in the photo above? It helps to eliminate a skin from forming over the wax.

Adding fabric to the back

One afternoon while browsing the aisles of Dollarama, I found fabric that was perfect to line the back of the bookcase. Unfortunately, the hardboard back on the bookcase couldn't be removed. It is so much easier to decoupage when you can lay the back on a work table.

Instead, I used a piece of foam core cut to size and decoupaged the fabric onto it with Dynamic clear wallcovering adhesive and an inexpensive chip brush.

Unlike wallpaper, it is difficult to match the pattern repeat without cutting the fabric in perfectly straight and unfrayed vertical strips. Not having the time nor the patience for that, I lined it up as best I could.



The edges of the fabric were folded over the board and secured with masking tape.

Since the decoupaged fabric will be behind glass and shelves in front, the imperfect pattern repeat will hardly be noticeable.

Adding some pretty to the existing knobs

Instead of replacing the original wood knobs I painted them red and cut flowers from the extra fabric and decoupaged them onto the top with Mod Podge.

I embellished the key with some charms and beads from my stash.

Stenciled frosted glass doors

The glass panes on the doors felt like they needed a little something-something. With Rustoleum Frosted Glass Spray, I stenciled the doors using an Allover Damask Birds of Paradise wall stencil on the lower panes and small Damask stencil on the top panes.

My hilarious oops

Here's where I'm keeping it real, guys. The first stencil worked great using the frosted spray but the second went on rather bubbly and I couldn't figure out why.

...until I glanced over at the workbench and noticed both the cans of low tack spray adhesive and frosted spray sitting side-by-side.

Lesson Learned

Never place two similar cans together on the workbench when engrossed in the creative process!

Now for the before and after photos

This is the bookcase interior before...

...and the bookcase interior after.

Here is the side of the bookcase before...

...and the side of the bookcase after.

Front view of the bookcase before...

...and front view of the bookcase after.

As promised here is the Materials list for the products used to transform this antique oak bookcase.

Materials List

• FAT Chalk Paint Red Barchetta (not an affiliate link) 
• Americana Decor Stain Blocker and Sealer
• Zibra 1-inch Square Brush (around the glass)
• Zibra 2-inch Stubby Brush
• Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover Spray Paint Colonial Red
• FAT Wax Beeswax Polish Clear
• Daddy Van's Antique Brown Wax
• Small and Medium Round Bristle Chalk Paint Brush (for clear and dark wax)
• Shoe Brush (for buffing wax)
• Lint Free Rag (old t-shirt)
• Clear Wallcovering Adhesive (alternative)
• Mod Podge Matte
• 2 Rolls Red Floral Cotton Fabric (Dollarama)
• Masking Tape
• Birds of Paradise Damask All Over Wall Stencil (bottom panels)
• Small Damask Stencil (top panels)
• Rustoleum Frosted Glass
• Painter's Tape
• Stencil Spray Adhesive

Items without links can be found at The Interior Frugalista Influencer Shop On Amazon SHOP HERE

I have a question for you guys. Are any of you familiar with this furniture maker's stamp? I so, I would so appreciate hearing about it in the comment section below.

Now let's take a look at how my talented friend's in the Furniture Fixer Uppers group transformed these furniture pieces...

Press the links below to see the after photos and tutorials...

1. Girl In The Garage
2. Confessions Of A Serial DIYer
3. Petticoat Junktion
4. Prodigal Pieces
5. Just The Woods
6. The Interior Frugalista (that's me)

I share my projects at these fabulous link parties.