apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Another possibility would be to give the built-in a wipe down with diluted white paint, to end up with a cerused or limed oak appearance (lightening the piece even further, and getting white/off-white in the woodgrain's indentations).

I think the warmth/reddishness of the piece is the problem, not necessarily that it is not as dark as the furniture coming in.

For impact and a little pizzazz, I'd change the color of the back wall of the built-in's inset part, and/or mirror and light it.

And ditto MGR on the floor notes.

How about creating some kind of Mondrian type of look by painting the protruding trim pieces black or white (ok white would not emulate Mondrian but it would match the base boards) and then glueing colored panels onto the surfaces?

You could also go dark and monochromatic with single color panels. I know what I'm thinking about but I don't have a link or pcitures. I'm sure the plastic place in China town would have something suitable.

How about buying sheets of new veneer and sticking it on top? If the surface is flat that might not be too difficult?

Reef

I'd go with some fabulous retro wallpaper over the top-maybe a tomato red to go with that wall?

Another possibility... paint the woodwork and any non-red walls in that room in beige(s) from the same range of tones as the problem unit. This will "knock back" the unit so it reads as wall, rather than being perceived as furniture. If you then leave the floor light like the unit, your walls-trim-floor-storage will feel like a single neutral package that showcases the red wall, the dark furniture, and your linens.

That would be a cool piece with wenge veneer. Can't you get those guys that come in a redo kitchens to reveneer that piece? Don't they simply come and cover over horrible old kitchen cabinets with new veneer? I bet that would work here. I would agree with the person that said that you should light that inset and put a mirror in the inset. If you wanted to go glam, get molding for around the front of the doors, paint it all white or a color of the ceiling, and put mirrors inside the molding. Very Hollywood Regency, but probably not what you are looking for. Good luck and post pics when it's done!

I have a small cabinet that I use to hide my TV -- a great Salvation Army bargain find -- was also a veneered surface. I stripped the poly surface with a chemical stripper -- no sanding -- then rubbed it down with many many layers of black wood stain, then re-coated with poly. I will warn you, this was fairly labor intensive. The final product is black with some of the original (walnut) color showing through -- it looks great, and I always get compliments on it. You could try a dark brown stain (or whatever shade matched your other furniture...) I am confident this technique would work for you.

Frank has a great idea. You could do that on the framework and then cover the door/drawer fronts with raffia wallcovering. It comes in many color hues so it would be easy to find one that works with the rest of the furniture.

thanks for all the great ideas!!

if anyone is up for a challenge, email me and i'll explain the problem with our *other* built-in!

-joe

ps: the floors aren't staying the way they're shown in the shot... we're having carpetting put down.

my mistake – thought my email address would automatically be included in my post. it's dashdotcom(at)yahoo(dot)com.

thanks!

Joe, it's a good thing you posted here. The piece can definitely be stripped (I'd fire your painter - he should have known about that). Instead of chemical stripper (LISTEN UP, EVERYONE!) order a paint stripper from www.franmar.com that is made from soybeans - I've been using it for years on huge strip jobs and it's simply amazing stuff. It doesn't burn, doesn't evaporate and washes off with water. It's eco-friendly. I promise you, it'll be like a miracle! A little goes a long way way, too, which is good, because it's around $55.00 per gallon - you'll need way less for the cabinet - save the rest for stripping an old painted dresser or something.
I also stripped an old end table that I refinished just like Frank, using an ebony stain and it came out really beautiful.
I know what I'm talking about: I've been stripping paint for over twenty years, and have tried everything - this stuff is just great. Don't forget when stripping - start at the top and work your way down!!!!

So much of this is very difficult to judge without actually seeing the furniture and such that's going into the room.

I would consider getting rid of the red on the walls. Ordinarily red is a great color, but I think with that built-in, if you're unable to paint it, and your furniture is dark wood, there will just be too much going on in the room. I would really consider painting the walls something that harmonizes with the color of the built-in, rather than trying to make the built-in harmonize with everything else when its particular qualities make that difficult.

I definitely agree with Maxwell about redoing the floor. I might strip it, stain or paint it dark, use area rugs rather than carpeting? Again, it's hard to advise when we can't actually see what the carpet will look like.

I would also consider trying a really good primer on the veneer. Why does it necessarily need to be stripped? There *are* primers for slick plasticky surfaces. But it's not something that I know a lot about.

I think that Miranda has hit upon something good about making the other things blend with the built-in. I like the idea of something other than red for that wall. I think you should leave the built-in as is, but go ahead and paint the walls either the warm golden color that underlies the overall effect of the built-in wood color, or perhaps that slightly more orange tone in it.

Then, I think that if you can, it would be good to rip out the baseboards, and lay down new ones, staining and finishing them to match the built-in, which would make it feel more organic to the room.

There's probably a window in there somewhere, too, though, and it would probably be more of a chore to strip it than it's worth, but perhaps if the walls were the slightly more golden tone from the wood tone of the built-in, then the window frame could be painted the slightly darker tone from within that wood tone.

I think that would neutralize the built-in pretty completely. Since you've already decided to carpet the floor, I guess there's no need to stain those. It would be great to know what color that carpet would be, though.

JUSTIN (or anyone else):
The paint stripper will remove finish off old stained wood? What else should be done, like post-stripping sanding, to prepare the piece for re-finishing?
Thanks!

I have dark mohagony bedroom furniture and I am not sure what color to paint the walls. I like reds and lush browns, but I don't know if dark furniture should have dark paint or light paint...