Creat Wood working

Paint it Black

It started innocently enough back in November when it was decided that we would paint the bar cabinet below, black ... Since then, we have had three other black projects come through. One, a take off in vanity form on the bar project, the second a laundry cabinet that we designed back in November but didnt decide on the finish until we were, well, ready to finish it, a couple of weeks ago. Weve got a good black on walnut or mahogany finish that Ill detail as we go ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
The bar cabinet from right before Christmas .. We detailed the finishing of that one in that post and this cabinet was pretty much the same ...
Since my last post on this project we added the interior drawers
Here is the cabinet just before the finishing began
First coat was a full strength Lockwood water soluble dye, English Brown Mahogany..
After that was dry, Will sanded it thoroughly with 150 and then applied a second coat of the same dye, a reddish brown ... While that was still wet, he added exterior soft gloss latex and sponged that around until it looked right. We used one of our photography hot lights so we couls see the black cabinet while we were working on it ... It also helped to go around with a clip light while youre working on it and just after the paper towel to pick up spots you might have missed ... It is soooo hard to see a black finish as you apply it ...
The final and all important step is to, after it dries for a half hour or so, buff it with 4 0000 steel wool and polish it aggressively with a paper towel ... Itll look good after that but will still take a couple of oil/varnish coats for full protection and a low sheen.
Also this week we (finally) installed a laundry cabinet that we designed back in November. youve seen it lurking in the shop for many blog posts ... It just couldnt seem to get all done; but, now it is. ... Looks good ... Interesting before and after photo from two different directions

The CAD drawing was modified slightly to make the drawers more functional before we began construction ... And, below, we finished the tv cabinet build out (scroll to the bottom of that one) that we started discussing the same day as the laundry cabinet ... Four black projects in 2 months ... a first ... I like them ...
We moved the tv 8" forward in the cabinet .. the wires were just long enough ...