Metallic Glazed Sideboard

I decided to bring up the sideboard I had in storage.. I thought I would use it in my birds' room... something to put their TV on.  I purchased this piece nine years ago and used it at my old house for a awhile but retired it after I moved. I kept it because I liked it’s bones... the carved detailing and curved feet. The piece is wood with wood veneer and hada cherry stain, which had kind of yellowed and discolored due to UV exposure.

I cleaned, sanded, primed and painted it (SW Antique Linen). Here are pics showing the primed piece...

  

and Antique Linen on the architecture against the white primer.

I decided that a metallic taupe color glaze would look nice. I applied the glaze with a brush on/wipe-off technique using a 2 inch chip brush and cheesecloth. The chip brush is a great tool for getting glaze into tiny crevices.

Here is how the architecture looks after wiping off with a cheesecloth... a nice, subtle effect.

To add a little more interest, I applied the metallic paint to a few edges here and there to give the piece a slightly distressed look without actually distressing it. For the hardware, I primed the pieces with a metal primer and did a tonal finish with some glazing.

Here is a close up of the curved feet.

Finally, I topcated with two coats of polyurethane. I think it turned out fine, the problem is although it fits in the room I was going to place it, I'm not loving it scale-wise and I really have no other area in my house for it. One drawback of having an open floor plan is decreased wall space . So it will probably be taking a trip to my Mom’s house… her neighborhood is having a garage sale in a few weeks. I probably need to mount the TV on the wall for the birds anyway.

UPDATE:  September 27, 2010

I ended up keeping the sideboard. I decided to add more metallic to the carved detailing. I dry brushed a concentrated metallic silver (Faux Effects Faux Metal Silver) over the high points and then glazed the areas with Metallic Pearl White (Folk Art), which added shine and pearlescence.

Here is a picture with the flash... you can see the silver detail, but not so much the pearlescence of the metallic pearl white glaze.

Without the flash, you can see more of the pearlescence and shine.