Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Just As I Imagined

Here she is. She didn't start off very pretty.


She didn't start off very practical...what were they thinking?


Her "jewelry" didn't even match.


A fresh coat of paint did wonders. (The color is Macadamia.) It did not fix the hole in the back of the pantry. Eventually, I devised a plan that fixed the hole...I forgot to take a picture of that portion.


Lowe's cut all my lumber for me for the new shelves, which was painted to match the outside.


It did not fix the top of the cabinet which was badly damaged.


It wasn't even flat.


I had this piece of Birch cut to fit the top (at Lowe's of course!)


A little...or a lot of wood glue was used to fix the piece of wood to the top.


An assortment of heavy items were placed on top for the night. I used wood filler to make it look almost seamless and then it was painted to match as well. You might wonder why I chose such a blah color. Well, I actually had a greater plan in mind. Since the piece of furniture was in quite bad shape, I wanted to hide it's flaws. There were large chunks of wood missing in different places. I used quite a lot of wood filler throughout the process. However, I wanted to make sure that this solid wood cabinet's imperfections, wear, and tare were hidden. I decided to use a crackle coat on top of the Macadamia color and then use Porcelain Red as the top coat. And...


Voila!!!


New handles and


hinges made it complete.


I decided to put two shelves on one side and three on the other.


It definitely brings a pop of color to the room! I still need to hang a few pictures and put a few things on the top of the cabinet, but that will have to wait for the weekend. I still need to put the color protector on, but all the direction say you should wait 72 hours.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

you are so amazing! so creative! so handy with tools! so diligent to get a task done! the pics made this such an interesting post and the finished product is great! why am i not surprised you used red as the topcoat? i hope it fulfills all your expectations for its use and you get many years of enjoyment from your handiwork ;-)

JEff said...

ooh la la! that's a (HEAVY) pretty cabinet.

michellem said...

Looks great! Especially next to that beautiful table!! All it needs is just a pic of a couple of cute kids on the top. ;)

Jane said...

dreamlady- Thanks! It was fun and I am very pleased with the final product. It's quite fun when something turns out just like you imagined.

JAaRL- Are you going to help me move it down the stairs when the time comes? ;)

Michellem- I have a cute picture of two kids wearing red that may make its way over there eventually!

Meems said...

Great job, Jane. And you didn't even mention that you had to inhale all the fumes since you worked on it INDOORS! I have a much smaller piece that I have wanted to refinish in red for years and haven't gotten around to it. That project just keeps getting moved around on every list I make.

Did it turn out to be economically better after having to have all the wood cut? I like the way you envisioned it and then made it happen!
Meems @ Hoe and Shovel

Jane said...

Meems- Economical? I spent more on paint and other supplies than I did wood. I used birch for the braces and top piece. The shelves are MDF and I was able to buy a 6 or 7 foot piece that was cut to make all the individual shelves. Lowe's cut all my wood for free. Honestly, I spent more than I had planned, but still less than I would if I had try to find a piece in an antique store or a furniture store.

I will definitely be more inclined to look for random pieces of furniture and when I find a piece like this one and refinish it.

Rissalee said...

goodness gracious! that's amazing! YOU are amazing. You should be featured on a DIY special! (And I think it's spelled "Voila!" - it's French, oiu?)

Jane said...

Rissalee- Thanks! It was a fun project. Oh and thanks for the spelling correction. I'll go back and fix it...I took Spanish so I my French is pretty non existent.

Becca Christensen said...

Love it!