The Vintage Bluebird: {A Vintage BlueBird Armoire}

In My Home

My parents got me this Armoire for my birthday. I couldn't wait to get going on it.

Step by step creating a Vintage Bird on the cabinet door:

The armoire looked pretty good... other than the feet. Next step: tip it over and paint the feet. While waiting for that to dry, I ripped off the old backing (it had a huge hole in it) and put in some beadboard I had left over from a different project. Before putting the backing on, however, I antiqued it.

How to Antique:

Step 1. Paint the base coat. I mixed these three colors to come up with a vintage Patina Green. This will be the backing behind the cabinet doors.

Step 2. Water-down your antiquing color. I used black since my armoire is black. Get a wet rag ready (I like to use crochet rags since they have a lot of texture). Brush it on in little areas at a time. Try to do a whole strip at a time, from one end to the other-as shown.

Step 3. Quickly wipe away with the wet rag. The paint should remain in the corners and crevices. This might take a little bit of practice. I antiqued while my patina green was still a little tacky so that the black would mix in and dull the color of the entire piece.

Here is the piece, ready to go!

I picked these wreaths up for $1 a piece. It took about 30 seconds to cut away the very fake looking ivy and flowers.

I hung the wreaths with patina green ribbon. I looped the ribbon around the wreaths, melted the ends together with a lighter, and stapled them to the top of the door (with a little wood glue here and there)