A two-tone Cabinet

 
This was a nice straight forward re-do. I love doing a two-tone look, because so often the drawer facings are in good enough condition that you can just give them a clean, and touch up the small scratches with gel stain.  It saves a lot of time.
 

 

This cute cabinet caught my eye the first time I saw her, but her price tag didn't..fortunately, I went back to the store a second time and she was 75% off.  YES PLEASE.  She actually had a hutch component as well, but it didn't look nearly as stylish and I opted to leave it behind at the store. I know they were a pair because they had the same hardware and bone detailing, yet despite that, the top looked like it was country-kitsch, where the bottom look chic and cool. 

I had to completely strip the top, which is not something I do when I am painting if I can avoid it, but there were too many scratches that went straight through to the wood, and it mar the final look of the paint.  So I broke out my stripper and went through the motions.  After I had lifted all of the old finish off the top, I gave everything a smooth sand with the orbital.  For the rest of the piece I just gave a good once over scuff-sand.

Because I sanded back to the wood, my inner voice-of-experience warned me I would get some heavy bleed-through.  I ignored that voice and painted one coat with my gripper primer.  Within a few minutes large yellow blotches formed everywhere.  Yep, dreaded bleed-through.  So the next two coats were applied with Zinsser BIN.  Its shellac based and it dries up lightening fast which makes it troublesome to work with. It was cold outsid so I was working with the garage closed, I made sure to put on my respirator, because although the fumes from this are akin to a nice bottle of Kahlua, they rip your lungs raw if you inhale them..(luckily Kahlua doesn't effect the same result)

I sanded the Zinsser smooth and finished with two or three coats of my Cabinet coat paint in an off-white.  I kept the hardware original, but I buffed it up for a soft golden sheen.

 
I also wiped a coat of gel stain on the facings just to darken them up ever so slightly.

 

And I remembered to snap a before.  Hallelujah~