Por fin!

This labor of love has taken me so much longer than I thought it would. I found this piece at DI for $35 last November and my sweet hubby lugged this monster home in the back of our CRV. Couldn't believe it fit. But then the holidays hit and I had no time. The going has been slow taking weeks between steps and other projects that took precedent. But I can finally say it's done!

Quick overview...
1. First I to take it all apart and then sand it down, sanding the doors by hand because of the lattices. Took for-ever and left me with hand cramps.
2. I primed it and let cure. One of my favorite things about the piece is that I found the paint in the "Oops" section at Home Depot. LOVE a deal. I gone to the store seeking out a similar color but really didn't know either way so I took a chance and figured I would just be out the $5(!) for the gallon. But I ended up loving it. A little greener, a little darker, than what I had originally wanted but heck, for $5 I am not complaining. I painted two coats, only to take the pieces inside and realized the lighting in my garage was worse than I thought and the doors looked hideous. I had to sand them all down again in order to prime and paint yet again. More hand cramps.
3. I wanted pendant knobs for the drawers because that's what was there to begin with. No one stocks pendant knobs. I know this because I ran all over town to find them. I finally broke down and special ordered some on the internet. Waited two weeks only to find I didn't read the measurements right and the knobs were 3x smaller than I had planned and they didn't come in any bigger sizes. I had to return said knobs and reorder new ones. Of course it takes me a week to decide which ones because I was mad I couldn't have my favorite. And man, knobs are expensive! I paid as much in knobs as I did for the entire piece of furniture.

4. Once we got the new knobs, all the bolts were too long so I had to go out and buy new ones. Of course it took me a week to actually get out and buy the news bolts.
5. Then the hinges for the doors were falling apart and no one carried the same size-anywhere. So after searching and searching, Aaron tells me to buy the closest one I can and he carved out the hinge sockets on the doors and sanded them down to make them fit.

6. To finish it off I had to do a touch up coat everywhere we had dinged it getting the hinges right and the doors hung and where Jonah had already drawn on it with a pen. (Boy, I am going to have to keep an eye on our budding graffiti artist.)


But after all that, I find it was worth the effort. I love the cabinet and now have place to store a lot of my fabric, paints, crafts junk, etc. It's become the starting point for my dining room and I am ready to take on the rest of the room. As you can see I don't have do-da's, or accessories put together with the cabinet but I some projects in the works for that. I already spray painted my black candle sticks yellow to add color. (Spray paint had become one of my new best friends. LO-OVE it!) And I've already used the same blue cabinet paint, only lightened a little with some white paint, to make the word art. This room WILL come together if it's the last thing I do. Hint: the walls are next on my paint to-do list. I'll keep you posted.