The Peacock Art Nouveau Armoire Project

         It's tough to figure out which project to begin with to show you, but here we go……

Every penny I had for renovations went into house fundamentals like wiring, plumbing, tile flooring, faucets, laminate flooring etc that were contractor-installed. I kept a firm grip on the process, however, going to home improvement stores and choosing all flooring, tiles, grout, laminate etc myself. After all, I'm living with this forever, not the contractor. I learned sometimes you must put your foot down about such things. For some reason, contractors tend to regard single women as incapable of making sound choices for home improvements. Go figure.

Anyways, having spent my life savings on those reno's left me financially embarrassed to add furniture, cabinets etc, so I had to get deep-down creative in order to complete my home.

Although I'm not physically capable of heavy-duty projects that involve demolition and/or heavy lifting, I have my own power tools, including a mini-chain saw, and use them with impunity. I designed a chicken coop and run entirely from free wood pallets and an old dog-house, for example…more about that in another post. Just saying, being a woman alone does not mean you hafta call a durned contractor every time you need a small repair or project. YouTube has amazing tutorials on just about every kind of home repair you can imagine. I learned how to replace elements of my toilets, for example, using only YouTube.

Completing those repairs gave me such a high, an invigorating sense of " I did this !" that is unmatched by very many things in life.

So, first project I'll show you is an armoire I did over. I found it at a yard sale for ten bucks. It was a mess, of course, and the guy I bought it off of said "That'll make great firewood !", an opinion shared by some of my dear, disgruntled family members who labored to help me get this monster in the house.

As with this house, I could see despite it's many defects that the busted-up armoire had good,strong shelving & good bones.

           That's the one, true must-have of any re-purposing/upcycling project: good bones.

                         Here's the grim "Before":

 As you can see, it was in critical condition; broken doors had to be glued-clamped back together in sections, moulding replaced, interior painted, some surface sanding and then exterior painted using 3 shades of blue & turquoise; hardware selected, polyurethane architectural elements & new wooden feet that I painted to coordinate & then attached as the last bit of work, along with cabinet magnets ( inside doors) to keep the doors flush and closed. The tape marks you see are where the doors were in so many pieces they had to be taped into place so I didn't lose any of the parts. The doors being nice and flat allowed me to play with ideas in ways that more convoluted doors wouldn't have.

                                                                  The "After"….
         

To get the artwork I wanted, I first bought 4 copies of a Van Gogh poster of his beloved "Almond Blossoms" that I decoupaged using ModPodge into the two inset wood panels. That had to "cure" for several days til bone dry, then I could proceed. It helps to use a very soft, dry clean cloth to smooth out any bubbles under your posters as you go; for larger bubbles that don't easily smooth, you can make a teensy tine-sy pinprick with a sewing needle, then smooth over that with your cloth. Over the curing process any air under it will escape and it'll flatten completely, if you've smoothed sufficiently. If you happen to have a clean, new roller for wall painting, that will work as well for smoothing, as will a clean un-used printing brayer. 

Don't forget to allow to dry totally before you proceed to your next step !!

I found a long-ish poster by artist Waterhouse that I love, took it to the printers and had them first enlarge it a bit to mimic my door dimensions, then reversed the image in Photoshop, so they'd be facing one another, and printed a copy of it on a special matte photo paper. 

DO NOT use a cheap, thin, bond type paper if you want to try this; it will not decoupage, will wrinkle and even tear. Good poster paper stock = great decoupage ! If you can select the kind of paper it's printed on when you order your poster, ALWAYS choose the best paper stock available if you're going to decoupage it. If you can't select the paper type when you buy your poster, when it arrives take the poster to your printer and have them copy & re-print it on matte photo paper. It's well worth it.

Cheap paper will wreck your project. 

Cost of posters plus printing: $32.00

After the printing came the tough part: I had to use manicure scissors to meticulously trim all the background out from around each figure, to allow Van Gogh's posters underneath to shine and to give a sense of cohesiveness to the overall look. While you don't need to do this if you're using only one poster, it does give enhanced continuity to your design if you're coordinating two or more different art posters.

After the decoupage was totally dried, I went over it all with some polyacrylic, to prevent yellowing of my gorgeous images and to allow the doors to stand up to dusting and Father Time.

      These are the polyurethane architectural elements I bought online, along with some elegant wooden furniture feet ( Ebay !) I found. I have to say the architectural elements aren't exactly cheap but the finish they provide is soooooo elegant, so I splurged a little on them. They come white and you can paint them any color you choose, just be sure to use a latex or water-based paint. I used two different colors, an emerald green and a cobalt blue.

The wooden feet were just plain wood, I painted them and installed them --after thorough drying-- into the floor of the armoire. It's original feet were pretty raggedy; it sat lopsided, so new feet for her !

TIP: if you're painting furniture pieces like these feet that have screws embedded in them, get a small cardboard box and stick the unfinished pieces upside down, screws stuck into the box bottom ( you can tape the box bottom to make it more stable & cooperative.)

This will securely hold your pieces upright so they can be 360-degrees-painted and save you a big messy clean-up and allow for unblemished drying.

                                 Cost of architectural elements plus wooden feet: $56.00

I have a Hardware Problem. As in, I ADORE unusual knobs, handles etc. The more unique they are, the more I want them. :) The handles I chose for this armoire are from Thailand, were hand-cast in bronze and are stylized peacocks. I know, SHUT UP, right ?!?!  They set me back $65.00 but were so worth every penny. I absolutely adore them. 

Oh, and I got them on Ebay, my international shopping fave. :) 

Cost of bronze handles: $65.00 with free shipping

A close up of the architectural detail….you can see on the left panel where I'd not yet finished all the moulding. That was added later.

This shot below gives you an overall look at the armoire…I blacked out the background to give it a wee bit more drama ( like it needs that, right ?! :)  I received a couple peacock-colored mosaic candle tea-lights as gifts that I put battery powered "candles" into and placed on top. The flicker at night is very calming, adds a nice ambience. You may notice the doors below aren't perfectly flush; this photo was taken after I'd just finished it; over time the magnets and a large book I leaned against the door bottoms tenderly pulled them into alignment.   Sometimes ya hafta improvise.  :)

I did this project over eight month's time. I bought each new element when I could afford to, and that allowed me to get truly unique pieces to finish it, plus it didn't tax my anemic budget all at once. I didn't mind the wait, I was working on other projects and doing my artwork in between. This is a common sense way to approach DIY makeovers & re-purposing, I think. Add new elements as you can afford to; take your time; it'll make your finished piece just that much more special~ :)

The inside of my lovely boudoir armoire…I keep my bedroom tv in here, along with books, towels and framed family photos. ( sorry for the yellow-orangey cast but I had the overhead light on, it tends to cast yellow tinges)

The inside of the doors were covered with a decorative paper of tiny flowers and feathers with metallic gold, it's from Italy. ( they're now out of this pattern but I posted a link to a similar pattern by the same company here---> )   Rossi Fine Decorative Papers . 

Yum~ ! gorgeous, inexpensive papers for any decoupage project  :)  

By the way, if you look closely at the middle of the center bar, you can see the cabinet magnets I added to keep the doors flush and closed. ( $3.98 a pair @ Home Depot)

Total cost of project: $163.00, spent over 8 month's time. 

I double-dog dare you to find an 8+ ft tall--4 ft wide armoire anything like this for less than that ! :)

You don't have to use architectural elements and pricey hardware like I did, you can definitely make it even cheaper, but I really wanted each of those special elements and was able to wait to get them. 

I love crafting pieces that have the potential to become heirlooms some day, so I use the best & most unique elements I can find at the least expensive cost. I make them to last and last. 

Any questions, just use the link to email me !!

Thanks for looking~

Warmly, Susi