Chinoiserie Style Painted Cabinet DIY

I have been hoping to find a beautiful chinoiserie style armoire on a thrifting trip. I originally hoped to find a black one and after looking for years it became clear that finding a big, beautiful lacquered armoire was a difficult ask for a thrift find. I have looked at several along the way that were generally pretty expensive and I also realized they might not be sturdy enough to hold the things that I needed to store. 

This white cabinet came from a big box store decades ago and stores my art and craft supplies. Collectively they are heavy. This cabinet is also deep which is a bonus. It was originally in the basement but when I morphed the room upstairs into the "Garden Room," as I call it, I brought it upstairs which was much more convenient. I knew it wasn't attractive and the search for the chinoiserie armoire began. No luck on that front. I had considered a couple of options to make it look better while looking for the elusive armoire but nothing really grabbed me. 

(Here it was - big and white!)

Reality set in - 1. I don't think any of the traditional chinoiserie cabinets will be large enough or strong enough. 2. Even if I find one they are thousands of dollars and I'm not willing to spend that. 3. I will keep looking but I cannot look at that big white box anymore. 

I popped on to Pinterest and started looking at antique and vintage chinoiserie cabinets with the thought of doing something to the cabinet to improve it. The first thing that happened is that a lot of beautiful green chinoiserie cabinets popped up and I became obsessed with the idea of doing something green. After all, there are green velvet curtains in the room already along with other green touches to perpetuate the "Garden Room" feel. See my inspiration board here.

The second thing that happened is that I realized that some of the pretty chinoiserie cabinets were made by American furniture companies like Thomasville and Baker and they were stenciled! I was on to something. I ordered about 20 dollars of chinoiserie stencils and pulled out my paint deck and some Rub and Buff and decided to see if I could give this old white cabinet a "faux" chinoiserie finish. 

This Thomasville Mystique Vintage Handpainted server was on Chairish for $2200.00. 

Look - it's stenciled! So I decided to combine the looks using stencils and gold paint. I decided to try Rub and Buff first because I like the look of its finish, I was going to be stenciling on an upright piece of furniture and it doesn't drip and I thought sponging it on would give me the look I was after. 

I decided on SW Garden Grove. The name seemed an omen and I wanted a green that would blend well with the other greens already in the room. I lightly sanded the cabinet and then primed it. Once that dried I rolled on 2 coats of the green paint using a sponge roller specifically for smooth services. I let that cure a couple of days before beginning to stencil. 

I used a sponge that I cut into small squares to stencil with. I also used a foam "spouncer" from the craft store for some smaller spaces.

I decided to start with the sides and figure out the best way to layout the designs and see how the Rub and Buff was going to do before committing to the front cabinet doors. 

At this point I'm just winging it with the layout. It would be easy to lay out the design on brown paper to be sure it was balanced and worked well with the dimensions but I just went for it. I figured that by the time I got to the front I'd have a good feel for how to stencil with the Rub and Buff, drying times, etc.

And then on to the front of the cabinet. 

I'm very pleased with how the cabinet is turning out. The Rub and Buff gives just the right amount of texture and shine and goes on easily without seeping under the stencil. It does take quite a bit so I had to order more tubes!

This is turning out to be a really fun project! I think it has vastly improved a $100.00 utility cabinet. I did pause here and order one more stencil that had some more variety to choose from including pagodas in a couple of smaller sizes to mix in. If I were covering a smaller space like a dresser front I probably would have just repeated the designs like some of the chests on my Pinterest board. 

I'm spending a lot of time sitting on the floor stenciling and looking up. I decided to start at the top and to "loosely' create a scene that seemed like we are peeking through the cherry blossoms at a little village scene. 

I will link (at the end of the post) the stencils I purchased, the cost and my thoughts on how much I used/needed them in case you decide to try your own chinoiserie furniture dupe!

I base coated the handles (which are just plastic) with gold spray paint and then gave them a coat of Rub and Buff after that so the gold matched.

Finished! And Cooper approved. I am starting to put the room back together after completely emptying it out to paint the wood floors and the cabinet. More to come!

What I used for the cabinet:
Secret Garden Toile Stencil $9.00  I used this stencil a great deal. It had multiple pagodas and elements that I worked in throughout the pattern.

Koi Fish Stencils $9.00 The stencil designs are beautiful and you get a lot of size variety in the package. I used these along the bottom of the "scene" I created and I don't think they are a huge bonus to this cabinet but on another project they could be great. 

These three stencils were the workhorses of this project and I paid about $18 for all three. Here,  here and here.

Geisha stencil.

This is the Rub and Buff I used. It took more than I estimated but I love the finished look and it was easy to control on the vertical surface.

Feeling Green (Color Theory)

I have always been intrigued by the psychology of colors. Especially their impact on how they make us feel when they are used in our environment. I had quite a few college classes dealing with this - both when psychology was my minor, in art classes when I changed my major to textile design and then in a marketing/advertising focused class or two when I was a journalism major. Perhaps I should have taken a class on committing to a major. No need, my dad handled it by letting me know it was time to wrap things up as my life as a college student was coming to an end. Or at least the parental funding was!!

It all worked out but I still think about color psychology often, especially at the beginning of the year when paint companies and designers make their color trend forecasts or when I'm about to start a project at my home. So, I thought that perhaps this intrigues you as well and maybe we'd all like to know more about why we are drawn to certain colors. 

I could have gone in ROY G BIV or rainbow order but I keep seeing the statement "Green is having a moment this year" or people stating that they are really drawn to green lately. So I'm starting with green. I love green, I use it a lot and I think green as a color is great but an even better addition to a room is a green living element - plant, flowers, branches. 

Green is the color of nature. It is considered calming - it is actually shown to slow human metabolism and the result is a calming effect. Many feel that green reduces stress. So now that we know it's calming, reduces stress and connects us with the outside is it any wonder that we are seeing green everywhere right now?? If ever we needed these three benefits from a color it is NOW!

Over the past few months, four major paint brands announced that some type of green would be its color of the year for 2022. Behr went with a light sea-glass green called Breezeway; PPG Paints chose a neutral gray-green called Olive Sprig; Benjamin Moore picked a soft sage green called October Mist; and Glidden chose a creamy plant-inspired green called Guacamole. It’s no coincidence that the names and descriptions of all these shades hint at something natural or organic. According to environmental psychologist Sally Augustin, PhD, principal at Design With Science, this influx of green likely stems from our deep-rooted connection to nature and its supportive qualities. via wellandgood.com

These are some "green scenes" from my own home. I use a lot of green - painted and live. I almost think of green as a neutral in many of my spaces. 

Do you use green in your home? Are you thinking that it might be time to add some green to your spaces. Do you like plants? 

I love plants and I have a theory about having them in our homes. I hear people say that they don't have live plants in their rooms because they don't have a green thumb and they die. Well, when you buy a $10.00 floral bouquet at the grocery store you have zero expectations of it lasting more than a week. Even if you don't have much of a green thumb a $15 plant is going to last a month or two at least. And some of them might surprise you and do better than you think. I have a pretty green thumb but I do lose plants from time to time. And some do better than expected. They add so much to your space - take the risk!

This $8.00 Jasmine from Trader Joe's has doubled in size in 2 weeks and is about to burst into blooms. I just make sure it is not completely dried out and has good light. It has surprised me!

And the topiaries (first picture) on my green bamboo table on the porch? I call them "faux-piaries" because they are all fake - pretty good looking ones and they add a nice touch of green to a room. 

Here is a favorite green from Sherwin Wiliams: Talipot Palm . It's about to show up on a small project at my house.

And our porch floor is Lounge Green. I get asked all the time!

Not sure about the power of green paint. Look at this before and after!

Go green! That's my advice :)