Yesterday I showed how the distinctive look of brass Chinese hardware brings a touch of the Far East to furniture. And I shared my once-secret source of how to get this hardware so you can buy it and use it yourself. I’ve done two DIY projects where I added Chinese hardware – one time to a small storage cabinet and another to a simple painted paper mache box:
That is a “mushroom” style latch closure from Chinese Brass Hardware on eBay. Their selection changes and I don’t see that exact one right now, but there’s a similar one available in a round shape:
If you order hardware for a project, watch the size descriptions on the eBay product listing. Some of this hardware is very large, designed for big 7 foot tall cabinets. And some pieces such as this one are smaller, about 3″ in diameter, and made for smaller chests or drawers. Make sure you order a size that fits your project. This shows the pieces you would get for hardware like this one:
It’s very easy to assemble and the Chinese Brass Hardware store shows how to do it, step-by-step with pictures on each eBay product listing.
So, I made this box with a Chinese dragon stencil and the special Chinese hardware as part of a bunch of super fun DIY projects I’ve done for Paint and Pattern – a blogzine about the whole world of color and pattern out there:
Literally, we are going around the world this year at Paint and Pattern, and each month we share inspiration and projects from different cultures and countries. April was Asia month and I knew it was a perfect excuse to play with Chinese hardware again! As you can see above, I photographed this box in front of a real Chinese cabinet – that’s our burlwood and black painted cabinet holding all our dinnerware. (And, the throw over the chair is from a tribe that lives in Laos and Vietnam – why not mix things up!)
Believe it or not, the box started as a plain brown paper mache box found at Michael’s craft store:
And with the magic of paint and a really cool dragon stencil from Royal Design Studio, the box was gradually transformed into something that looks like it came from a Shanghai souvenir shop:
To see tips and tricks for how to paint a gilded gold antique-looking box like this – doesn’t even have to be Chinese style, you can use these techniques for any design you want to paint on a box – hop on over to my post at Paint and Pattern!
