Antique Gentlemen's Cabinet Re-Purposed Into A Coffee Bar

A home coffee bar is not something that really entered my mind, until we received a Keurig as a Christmas gift.

Although convenient to brew only one cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate at a time, we drink too much coffee to use only a Keurig as our main coffee machine.

(Translation - we don't have that kind of patience to wait for our coffee!)  

Having two coffee pots on the kitchen counter takes up a lot of space.
So, the idea of a coffee bar came to mind.

Handy Hubby and I were on a mission!

A mission to find an antique piece to transform into a coffee bar.

We measured the space where we would put it, had a price point, and went antiquing.

We didn't settle, we shopped a few different places over the last couple months.

It was on Valentine's Day that we found it.  Read about the Gentlemen's Cabinet HERE. 

-  Before and After  -

It was dirty and it was musty smelling.

We took it to the basement, cleaned it up and let it air out for a while.
The width was a good size for our space, but the height was a tad too tall.
It also only had one wheel.
Handy Hubby cut the legs down a couple inches.

I did some research on Annie Sloan chalk paint, found a dealer and decided to go for it!

My girls and I chose Louis Blue because it is a close match to some of my other blue decor.

I chose to leave the top in the original dark stain (cleaned and lightly sanded it).

I love how the dark stain looks against the light blue color.

It also compliments the original hardware.

 I also chose to leave these drawers that pull out (behind a set of doors) in their natural state (cleaned and lightly sanded).

I like how they look when we open the doors.

I was pleased with how the paint went on the antique piece.
It dried nicely and had a cottage look (a look that I am falling in love with).

After drying, I applied the Annie Sloan clear wax.

I must admit, this scared me a bit...a process I have not done on top of regular paint before.
Applying clear wax was not a necessary step (I later found out).

Once I started applying the wax, it took off a little of the paint in specific areas.  Although I have done distressed painting before, this was not the look I wanted for this piece.  I really liked the clean cottage look.  But, once I started waxing, I went ahead and finished. 

I put the wax on with a clean old t-shirt and wiped off any excess, as directed.

I was not happy with the look...it was splotchy/smeared.
I let it dry for 24 hours, hoping it would look better.  It did not.

Can you see in this picture the splotchy patches?
I don't know if I put too much on,,,not enough on...took too much off...not enough off...

Determined not to let this project whoop me, I painted it AGAIN!  I did not sand it.  I used the same paint, hoping for the clean paint look again.

Yeah!  It worked.
Seems I took a couple extra steps that I didn't need to, but in the end I love how it looks.

I put the original hardware back on.

Then I had fun styling it and putting the coffee bar together.
The top drawers are perfect for storing the K cups.