The April showers here in New England have finally started turning the grass a rich, vibrant green and the trees are blooming. It’s Spring and it all about refreshing our homes in beautiful new ways and preparing for the travel adventures the summertime brings.
That’s why this month’s furniture makeover challenge that I am a part of and its theme are so fitting. I decided to refresh a very old (perhaps antique), cedar chest and make it over into a classic piece in which you store memories of your travels that you collect over time. Or, in simple terms… Time Travel.
Our contest hosts are Carrie at ThirtyEighth Street and Stacy at Anastasia Vintage. I highly recommend you check out their blogs and see their own furniture makeovers. They’re such an inspiration!
Pure and Original is our sponsor. The theme for this furniture makeover challenge…
Pure Colors, Original Elegance.
Pure and Original makes amazing paints. I was able to try the Chalk paint from their Classico line. While Pure and Original supplied each participant with two quarts of paint, I can assure you that all opinions are my own. I know you wouldn’t want it any other way.
Let me first tell you a little about Pure and Original. They’re a Belgium-based family company that goes back 50 years. Here are just a few of their paint lines…
Classico is a water-based chalk paint made with 100% natural pigments. This matte paint results in a finish that’s almost like velvet. It comes in 118 colors and I love the fact that it’s environmentally-friendly!
Here are just some of Thirty Eighth Street’s favorite Classico colors she gathered together and mine too! Pure and Original really does have a some of the prettiest and most original Chalk paint colors in the industry. They remind me of colors you’d find in nature and old-world history. Truly classic.
Fresco is a Lime paint. A 100% mineral paint with natural pigments with an authentic lime paint look.
Marrakech Walls is a a 100% mineral paint that gives your walls the look of concrete or Tadelakt. Tadelakt is the finish you’d see on the walls of a traditional Moroccan home. I would love to try this look on my walls! What an amazing look for a backsplash!
For the #FabFlippinContest, we all used their Classico Chalk paint. We were able to choose two colors. I chose a very dark forest green called Dark Forest and a white called Island White.
This was purposeful.
Very dark and very light colors are typically much more difficult to work with than medium shades. Choosing two extremes would give me a very good idea of how the paint reacted and the coverage (and this one past the coverage test with flying colors!).
The paint arrived just a few days after order. Each can is custom-mixed for the buyer and sealed extra well for travel.
Notice the extra clips on the can to prevent it from opening during shipping. This company truly cares about their product.
Also notice their packaging – a simple elegant design. What a beautiful job with their branding. It’s not over-the-top. Just pure and simple. I notice things like. Now lets get to the actual paint!
I’m in love with this Dark Forest color. It’s so dark, it’s almost black at night yet the deep green is still very apparent. This paint was still mixed when it arrived and I opened the can. The color wasn’t separated at all which means you can tell they used very rich pigments in their paint! I’m not a chemist, but it may also have to do with the 100% natural pigments they use.
While the Island White turned out to be a much brighter white than it looks on this swatch, I still love the high contrast and the final result on this travel chest.
Here’s a before picture of the chest. It’s truly an old-world, classic, elegant statement piece of furniture that has stood the test of time. I imagine this placed in an entryway, welcoming guests as they arrive from their days’ travels.
I gave the chest a quick sanding, priming, and removed a few of the scroll details to modernize it a bit. While neither sanding nor priming is required when using Chalk paint, the chest had a reddish stain and I wanted to ensure this didn’t bleed through.
The body of the chest was painted in the Dark Forest and the Island White hour-glass design (signifying time) was used to give the chest a modern feature.
Instead of distressing the edges, I took the edge of my white paint brush and very lightly highlighted the detail with the white paint. This tied in the top and the bottom perfectly.
Pure and Original Chalk paint brushed on incredibly smooth and leveled out very well. It adhered perfectly and just two coats of paint provided adequate coverage with both the dark and the light colors.
At one point I did miss painting a spot (because I was painting in my not-so-well-lit garage) and the spot I had to later go back and touch up blended well into the dried paint too. This very rarely happens with Chalk paint.
Over the past few years, I’ve tried several different brands of Chalk paint and Pure and Original has, by far, been my favorite. The coverage is excellent, it’s creamy smooth to paint with, and levels out so nicely.
If you’re blogger interested in participating in future Fab Furniture Flippin Contests, you can email Carrie and Stacy at info@fabfurnitureflippincontest.com.
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Thank you & Enjoy!
Vicki
Disclaimer: This post does contain affiliate links to products I love.
Susie says
Hi Vicki,
This is such a lovely makeover. The colors are amazing….and the styling…#swoon. Thanks so much for linking to Friday’s Furniture Fix. Sharing over IG and FB tonight. Susie from The Chelsea Project
Vicki says
Thank you Susie. It was MY pleasure to participate. I’m so impressed with this paint. I’ve since used it on other projects and it performs so well on every piece!
Melanie says
I would love to drop some travel souvenirs into this little chest! I like the tone of the green/black too, a neat color. Thank you for the review of the Pure paint too! All good stuff to know. So glad you linked up to Friday’s Furniture Fix with us!
Vicki says
I’m really happy I participated in the Fab Furniture Flippin contest this month and discovered this Pure & Original paint. I also just finished painting a desk with it and love it even more.
ARod says
Love your color choices and how stunning this piece turned out. Also love the idea of saving travel things in this great place.
Vicki says
Thank you. And the black china cabinet you restored with Pure & Original also turned out beautiful. Black is very classic.
Evie says
I love that you’re so excited about the paint but I didn’t see any info on purchasing it. Could you share that with us? Thanks
Vicki says
Hi Evie,
This was a sponsored post so Pure & Original supplied the paint (but I can assure you all opinions were my own). If you’d like to purchase, just click on the Pure & Original links or banner ad (affiliate links) in the article and it will bring you to the P&O site where you can purchase this wonderful paint and other lines they have.
Carrie says
I love this piece! And that top!!! It’s beautiful!
Vicki says
Thank you Carrie! And thanks to you at ThirtyEighthStreet.com I had a chance to try out this amazing Pure & Original paint. Can’t wait to join in another of your Fab Furniture Flippin Contests!
karen@somewhatquirkydesign says
Great colors! It’s good that you took that extraneous stuff off. It looks much better without it. Great job.
Vicki says
Thank you Karen. Overly ornate furniture isn’t quite my style. I like to modernize furniture by cleaning up the lines.
Val @ Love My DIY Home says
Very nice! I used to have a buffet but gave it away. Oh boy. If I’d known, I would do what you have done. You really improved it – good job!
Vicki says
Thank you Val! And I love what you did with that dresser over at LoveMyDIYhome.com especially the gray finish on the drawer fronts.
Meghan @ The Twin Cedars says
Gorgeous flip! That piece is so beautiful!
Vicki says
Thank you Meghan. BTW… love your blog design. Twin Cedars looks like a great place to visit.