China Cabinet DIY Using Farrow & Ball

Painted Cabinet Refresh 

A few weeks ago, the guys over at Farrow & Ball got in touch to see if I wanted to have a try at styling their new range of floral wallpapers. I love a good DIY challenge. As I am already a wallpaper addict, I had no walls left to wallpaper, so, I decided to use the wallpaper to give an old cabinet a new lease of life. In my master bedroom, I have a cabinet sitting in the corner. I had originally up-cycled it a few years ago, however, it wasn’t matching my room and it was looking a little tired. I was using it as a dumping ground for fabric samples and clutter. I decided to give this cabinet a makeover and I am going to share with you how I did it in today’s post. It was also lovely to paint a project in Winter as I struggle with the dark evenings. I was able to spend a few hours painting my cabinet each evening this week and I had such a sense of achievement when I finished it.

The Paint

The first thing I did to the cabinet was prep it for paint. This cabinet was originally a Mexican pine cabinet. I had painted it 3 years ago using an eggshell paint from another brand. The paint was in excellent condition, so, I cleaned down my piece to remove any grime and then I applied two coats of the Farrow & Ball interior wood primer and undercoat. I allowed this to fully dry between coats. This paint is touch dry in two hours and re-coatable in four hours.
Once I was happy with the coverage of the undercoat I applied two coats of the top coat. I chose the colour Calamine. This is a gorgeous blush pink tone. It gets its name after the lotion. Remember calamine lotion as a child? This top coat gave fantastic coverage and a lovely silky smooth finish. It feels really durable too.

The Paper

I used the Helleborus wallpaper to add a pop of print to the inside of my Cabinet. You can find it over on the Website by clicking here. I used roughly half a roll to paper the inside of the cabinet. I cut the pieces of paper to size and then applied a layer of wallpaper paste to the back. I pattern matched the paper that faces out. Putting the paper inside of the cabinet was the fiddliest part but persevere as it really is worth it. I love adding some paper to a project. It can be easily changed if you get bored with your piece and want to re-do it. This paper was lovely and thick, it was also easy to apply and it was forgiving as it didn’t wrinkle too much.

The legs

My cabinet was originally part of a unit. It came with a bottom piece. The lady was only selling the top. I bought the top a few years ago for €50 from a second-hand site. It was always missing something. During the week I was sharing my progress over in my Insta Stories and a few of you guys had suggested adding a set of legs to it. I didn’t think it would be easy to find replacement legs but I decided to have a quick google. I stumbled across an Irish website that had some gorgeous Queen Anne style legs. They weren’t too expensive either. For €8.99 each I got some legs for the cabinet and it completely transformed it. You can find the legs here. I used some gorilla glue to bond them to my unit. Once the gorilla glue cured they were rock solid. I was thrilled when the legs went on.



I am thrilled with how my cabinet has turned out. I am delighted I gave it a make-over, it just fits so much better into my room. I also put together a little video over on my Youtube if you want to have a better look at the cabinet. I am hoping to paint a few more pieces in my master bedroom as it needs a bit of a refresh.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post, please Pin some of the images to your Pinterest boards and come over to my Instagram to say Hi.

Chat soon,

Catherine.

* The guys over at Farrow & Ball kindly gave me the paint and wallpaper for today’s post. This is not a sponsored post and all opinions and reviews are my own. 

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10 Comments

  1. Poppy
    November 30, 2017 / 10:20 pm

    Hello Catherine, really nice project. Indeed, the legs make a whole lot of a difference. It matches nicely with the rest of your furniture. Now I'm thinking about redoing that cheap cabinet I have with wallpaper in it πŸ˜‰ On a sick leave for anxiety, have to keep myself busy.

  2. Catherine Carton
    November 30, 2017 / 10:50 pm

    Hi Poppy, I am so sorry to gear your anxiety has you ill. I know a good project helps me when I am feeling under the weather. I hope you feel better soon! Thanks so much for reading x

  3. Pam Long
    December 1, 2017 / 11:55 am

    Love that you used your car jack to hoist your cabinet off the floor…I am pretty good at making things work when I don't have the proper tools, not sure if that would have crossed my mind…hmmm, however you are the clever one! Hope to see how you style it too!

  4. Catherine Carton
    December 1, 2017 / 5:47 pm

    Thanks so much for commenting Pam, I don't know how I thought of it, it was like a lightbulb moment lol. x

  5. Lostvestige
    December 4, 2017 / 12:31 am

    It's so cute! I love the idea of adding wallpaper as a background.

  6. Catherine Carton
    December 4, 2017 / 5:16 pm

    Aw, thank you! Thanks for reading and commenting.

  7. Catherine Carton
    December 8, 2017 / 6:19 pm

    Thanks Laura, Thanks for reading x

  8. Unknown
    July 25, 2018 / 6:21 am

    Looks lovely, really pretty colour, the legs made it.

  9. Classy Country
    August 31, 2018 / 4:00 am

    Absolutely beautiful! You have inspired me to go shabby chic! I love it!

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