Chimney Cabinet with Milk Paint

Me with the finished product

   Hey all! This is Colin, Tanith's sometimes better (but mostly worse) half. I am a high school Industrial Arts, History, Science, and Music teacher. In my spare time (hah) I enjoy building things, blacksmithing, fishing, hunting, and being outdoors..I've been lucky enough to come all the way out here to teach in a good little community. Along the way I've gotten to see and do some pretty cool things which I hope to share via this blog.

...now that the preliminaries are out of the way, the real reason I'm posting this  is to show off a chimney cabinet that Tanith and I built over the past spring/this summer. This actually came up when a colleague of mine showed me the June 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking which featured this beautiful Chimney Cabinet from Logan's Cabinet Shoppe (http://www.logancabinetshoppe.com/index.php). I was quite taken with it and decided that it would be my next project in the shop.

                                               
I followed the plan nearly exactly. The only changes that  I have made were the following:

No toggles - the doors shut tightly enough that they do not need them. I may regret this in the winter, though humidity is not as much of a factor in the Prairies as it is on the East Coast; we will see.

I used half lap joints for the face frame instead of mortises and tenons.

The rest is built pretty simply, shelves are dadoed into the case, the back is rabbeted to accept tongue and groove cedar paneling, and the raised panel doors are put together with standard frame and panel joints.

I might add that I used a full compliment of power tools to accomplish this. The original maker did all of this by hand - which is admirable - but I lack the tools and the time to do so.

We painted this particular creation with milk paint which we procured at Lee Valley in Saskatoon. We found it very easy to work. I enjoyed using it as it creates a very nice finish and is quite unlike modern paints. Also, it is organic, chemical free, and contains no oil by products or any toxins.

We painted this with an initial coat of "Lexington Green" which we then covered with three coats of "Marigold Yellow" which Tanith sanded away to reveal the initial coat - giving the impression of years of use.

The first coat is shown above

After the yellow was applied the cabinet looked something along these lines:

Tanith decided that she really liked this project

                                          
Finally we applied some beeswax polish to give this an authentic look and to protect the milk paint from water spotting. The wax darkened the finish somewhat and enhanced the amount of Lexington Green that showed through. We buffed the polish and once it dries we'll be ready to bring it home.

...A little bit of product placement...

                                               
That was the project, I hope that you enjoyed reading about it and that it gives you ideas or inspiration for your next project! Thanks for reading!


           -C.