Painting a piece with Fusion Mineral Paint is as easy as can be! Following these simple steps, you will paint it beautiful. Upcycling your old furniture pieces is easier than you think! Our motto here at Fusion is Prep, Paint, Repeat! Painting is really that simple. Adding a bit of distressing is a great way to showcase the details in this piece and enhance the look. Follow along as we create this one-of-a-kind display cabinet.
How to transform a unique piece with vintage maps
Bookcases and china cabinets have to be some of the toughest projects to tackle as a furniture refinisher. Large pieces often come with a hefty price tag which makes updating them difficult as a furniture flipper. Neutrals seem to be the way to go with large pieces, but that can get boring if you’re really trying to be creative. So we decided to pair some memorabilia with a beautiful bookcase to bring you a one-of-a-kind piece with a ton of vintage flair!
This empire-style bookcase was the perfect piece to showcase our vintage maps.
Supply list
Before we begin, you’ll want to gather a list of all your supplies so you have them ready. In this list we’ve put together some of our furniture painting “must haves” that we use for almost all of our projects:
- Fusion TSP Alternative diluted in a 1:3 ratio with water. We like to put ours in a spray bottle for easier application.
- Cleaning/wiping cloths
- Sandpaper in 150/220 grit
- Painter’s Tape
- Staalmeester Flat Brush
- Staalemeester Round One Series Brush for corners, crevices, and details.
- Fusion Mineral Paint – 1 Pint in the colour of your choice. We picked Cobblestone for this project.
- Vintage Maps (or memorabilia of your choice)
Prepping your piece
The most important process in furniture refinishing is the prep. You always want to make sure your pieces are ready to receive a properly applied finish that will last for years. To start you want to give your piece a thorough cleaning. We used a 1:5 ratio of Fusion TSP and hot water to spray down the bookcase and cleaning rags to absorb the wet dust and any grime or grease.
Then we used a 150 grit sanding block to scuff up the surface and give our piece some tooth for our paint application. After your scuff sanding is complete, you’ll want to use your TSP solution to clean up and remaining dust and dirt from the sanding.
Lastly, before you begin painting, you’ll want to tape off any areas that you don’t want painted. For the bookcase, we only taped off the glass doors so that we could get into all the trim areas holding the glass.
Painting your piece
Now that your piece is prepped, it’s time for the fun part! We first tackled all the large flat areas using the Staalmeester Square Brush. This brush is perfect for laying down your paint smoothly across large flat areas like shelves and the top.
Next, we used the Staalmeester Round One Brush to paint the curves and details of the cabinet. This brush is perfect for getting into hard-to-reach crevices because it is narrow and small giving your more control over the paint.
Since Fusion Mineral Paint is known for its excellent coverage, it made painting a breeze. We only needed to apply 2 coats of Cobblestone for full coverage. Just check out how much one coat was able to cover!
Here is another photo showing the difference between one and two coats.
After the last coat had dried for at least 2 hours, we took 220 grit paper and distressed the edges. Vintage pieces like this always look best with a little accentuating.
Finally, it was time to add the vintage maps. We found this map booklet at a thrift store for $1. All we had to do was spray some adhesive and apply the maps in the directions we likes. We may have had to cut a few smaller pieces here and there, but the shelves were helpful in hiding the seams.
Dress it up!
Once we put it all back together, the result was this handsome bookcase that is lighter, brighter and much more fun with the map background.
Cobblestone is a beautiful pale grey that pairs well with both warm and cool colours. And just look at how much character the distressing adds and makes to this one-of-a-kind display cabinet.
