A Painters Cabinet (2012 and up)

In October 2011 I started to follow the course "Wood/ Marble imitations". At this course I'm thought how to paint fake wood and marble on a plain surface; f.e.: MDF.

The Cabinet as far as I got this far. At the side you see Napoleon Gris with a frame of Teak and a Pinewood bar.

In the beginning I could fit all my art supplies in a standard tool box. But in a short period of time I gained a bunch more supplies and the box got too small.
With my wood working skills I decided to build a cabinet with several drawers to fit the different times of equipment.

I started off with making some 2D drawings at AutoCAD. This way I knew what I needed and all the measurements.
I decided to build it from MDF, something I don't recommend when I'd do this a second time.

The good sides of MDF are:

• It's easy to work with. (No splinters, no nerves etc, easy to sand.)
• Not very expensive 
• The board comes in big sizes and several thicknesses.

The bad sides about MDF are:

• It's heavy!
• It's fragile; the corners will break or wear down easy.
• Due to the lack of nerves it has the property to bend easy. This is nice when you want to have something curved. But you don't want this to happen between drawers, because your drawers will get stuck (I learned this the hard way)

After having everything set, I sawed all the pieces I needed from the AutoCAD drawing.

Make note that the thickness of MDF might differ sometimes. It might say 3 mm, but in reality it's 3,5 or even 4 mm. This might alter your measurements.

I glued everything together. The drawer holders are MDF plates that are snugged into a saw line in the sides and back of the box.

The wooded skeleton

It was later on I discovered that these MDF drawer holders weren't a good plan due to the bending it did by its own weight.

I removed them and replace them by small strips of pinewood.

I wanted special handles for my cabinet and came up with the idea to make old keys.

Close up of some decorations.

These are made from 3 types of wood: MDF for the head part, a rod from pine wood and the connection pieces from plywood.

Finished keys next to the sawn out decoration pieces.

They were given a black base color and depending on their final color a dry brush coating. I also added rust and the oxidation of copper with basic acrylics. After that they got a layer of mat varnish.

Also I made some decoration pieces, as shown above. These are sawn, but I haven't painted or placed them yet.

Then it was time to paint the sides. Because this was for my course, I used all the techniques I learned at that moment in time. I did: Oak, White Marble, Napoleon Gris, Napoleon Rouge and Pine.
I left room to do Mahogany, Walnut, St. Anna and a light type of wood. That last one will be replaced for Walnut because I wanted that at the handle, but I have already used a different solution for it.

Back "Napoleon Rouge"

Front without lid

Front with lid

Top; White marble with Oak frame.

Left side; St. Anna

The front was a slide in board. This could function as a color pallet and it would keep the drawers from falling open during transportation.

For this I used plywood with 2 layers of varnish.
I used transparent foil out of which I cut several elements, f.e: the logo I made on my computer.. This would in the end look like fake "laid in" pieces of wood as they remain the original wood color.
The final pieces were painted in, like the letters and the darker paint brushes.

If you thought I would be finished by now, then you guessed wrong.
The insides of the drawers were still plain. Here I tried to make an antique look of pine wood.
This is basically the normal techniques for pine, but with a different base and a different finish.

Because I wanted it too look like old wood I needed some stamps. I made 3 out of foam. "Willow's Woodworks '12" (my nickname + something woody) "Geldermalsen" (my place) and "1986" (my D.O.B.)

Inside the drawer

As said I had different plans with the handle. I wanted it to resemble actual bark. This I made from an isolation tube and the left overs of a scrub sponge.

Steps of painting

The tube is carved in. Then I gets a dark brown coating, followed by a dry brush lighter coating. To add some moss coloration I added some light and dark green tones. To make it look more decayed some scales were pulled off and painted a lighter reddish brown color.

The scrub sponge leftovers were cut,  plucked, soaked in green diluted acrylic paint. Then It was plucked en mangled again because it got quite stiff after it dried. Some extra highlights were added and glued on top of the "wood" to resemble moss.

Finished handle part with hand painted lady bug.

The almost finished handle (I need to paint the ends)

The moss was too bright of color, therefor a darker tone of green was used to cover it.
A few tiny mushrooms were made from the same isolation foam as the wood. With the creative use of a lighter they were melted into shape.

2 wooden rings got a rusty red base which was covered with silver paint. I sand it down a slight bit to reveal some of the rust and I dry brushed it on some places.

Sisal rope was colored a bit to look a bit older and then wrapped around the rod using double sided tape to keep it in place.

This project is still in progress. I hope to finish the sides of the cabinet this year.

I'll add extra pictures when I'm done.