Card Catalogue/Apothecary Cabinet, Whichever You Prefer

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Today's post is a makeover of a makeover.  Originally this was a television.  In the early 80's my husband decided to make this into a cabinet.  In those days televisions had tubes, we found out the hard way that it was not safe to take the tubes out, it blew up right at him, luckily it didn't blow up into his face and he ended up with only minor cuts.

He put a shelf inside and added doors.  He carefully covered the doors with MacTac, remember that?  It matched the cabinet quite well.  Yeah, I know it was still ugly, but it was the 80's, things have changed a lot since then.

I don't know why I took this picture with it laying on the floor, but I guess you get the idea.

I peeled all the Mactac off the doors which took longer than I expected, and primed the small pieces that I cut out.

 I painted everything with two coats of red, then I sanded it all.

This is a mock up of what it will look like.  I know that this one is laying on the floor so that all the pieces stay on.

You would be surprised how many times I second guess whether or not I should antique the pieces that I work on.  The answer is always YES, you would think I would know that by now.  Below you can see the drawer fronts before and after antiquing.

Okay, so something surprising happened, I antiqued everything, and the next day when I started to varnish the cabinet, the stain started to rub off of the cabinet.  This has never happened to me before, and I'm not sure why it did this time.  So I had to decide whether to start over, or work with it.  Since it is supposed to be rough and old looking I decided to roll with it.

I sanded it between coats of varnish to smooth the finish out a little bit.

Attaching the drawer pulls was a real pain.  I should have had some sort of jig, but couldn't quite wrap my head around how to do it, plus I would have had to make two since I had to different sizes to work with.

As per usual I couldn't wait to share this piece with you, so I am not quite done.  My next post will show what I do with the inside. Until then, enjoy a few more pics.

 I have a few thoughts but haven't quite settled on anything yet.  In the end I absolutely LOVE this piece.  I wonder how many lives this old TV will have, it's on its third right now.

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A Different Bench Made From an Old Door; A Hall Tree

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I've been thinking about making one of these for a while now, in fact when I made this bench, I was planning on making one like this, but changed my mind half way through it.  

There are a lot of ways I could have gone with this, it can be done many different ways.  I decided to go with a bench seat and a shelf.  I decided to use the iron shelf supports, and to leave the storage bins open for baskets or shoes, or whatever.

The feet are pieces of shaped wood cut off a long length of wood that I previously salvaged.  I don't know what it was, it looks like a banister or something, but it is very thick.

I added the arms made from salvaged wood.

When it was all put together I painted the whole thing with a good primer.

 I added a little decoration to cover the lock hole, and then some more to balance it out.  I then painted it with 2 coats of gray paint.

When it was dry I painted on a coat of Varathane, then I antiqued it with ebony stain.  I finished off the painting by varathaning it again.  I added chipped painted hinges and some old knob and tube insulators that I salvaged from the stone house to be used for hanging keys etc.  I removed the door knob from the back of the door so that it can be placed against a wall, so I had to glue the remaining knob to the back plate.

To finish it off I added a nice cushion with coordinating fabric.

After a little clean up, it's all done.

 I shared at

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70's Sewing Cabinet Makeover

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A while ago I was looking for an ugly old piece of 70's furniture to make over.  I came across this sewing cabinet and even though it wasn't really what I was looking for I decided it would do.

Just look at the beauty of it, NOT!

I painted the drawers with Blossom White.

First I sprayed on a light coat of Dual, by Krylon.  I only had enough for one light coat so I moved on to Rust-oleum, Blossom white in Satin 

 I gave the whole cabinet a light sanding in order to wear off some of the edges.

It wasn't as distressed as I wanted it to be, so I decided to go one step further.

I think this may be a little more antiqued than I was expecting, but....

in for a penny, in for a pound!

 I think when I get a new top put on it, it will be just fine.

Now for the top, I found a piece of laminated pine shelving.  All I had to do was cut 2 pieces to length with the circular saw, 

and the rip 3 inches off one of the pieces with the table saw.

Then I glued the 2 pieces together to make up the width that I needed. 

I clamped the 2 pieces together, cleaned up the glue, and left it to dry.

A little trial fit to make sure it is the size I want.

I gave it a good sanding, then 2 coats of primer, then a coat of "cabinet and trim" paint.  I used the following picture as inspiration.  Check out this site, gorgeous!
http://cheltenhamroad.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/paris-subway-art-coffe-table-5-fini.jpg  

I have never been to France, but I have been to Morocco, so I used street names and attractions, and made up my own.

I sanded it so it looked worn, and not crisp.

I antiqued it with ebony stain.

Popped it onto the cabinet for a photo op.

 Soon I will paint the inside, add a shelf, and attach the top to the base, but for now, there it sits, 98% done ;)

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