Monday, September 16, 2013

Updated Cabinet into Acorn Wreath Storage Cabinet

This cooler weather already has me thinking fall. Football, apple cider, and falling leaves.


I found this cabinet in a local used furniture shop. This little vintage 1940's piece was beat up, unloved, and stuffed into a corner. Despite that, it was priced at $14.95 It had a maple top, vintage shabby chic style and a great shape. I figured we could do something with it. We were so excited to get started that we forgot to take the "before" picture.  (Sigh...once again excitement overrides know-how!)

An acorn wreath graphic from The Graphics Fairy was our inspiration for this piece. http://thegraphicsfairy.com/search/  Her site has amazing vintage style free graphics. If you haven't visited her site, you should!  I used one of her bee graphics for my Dutch Back Bee Chair. You can see it here -   http://tinyurl.com/qbbrg9k

The first thing on our list was to give it a good cleaning. The bottom of the cabinet was given two coats of cream color paint, the knobs were painted a light sage green. Both were then sanded back to bring out the details and to give the new paint a shabby chic finish.

Two of the most interesting updates to this piece were the top and the insides of the storage area. We wanted to do something special in the back of the storage area. We cut a piece of foam core to the size of the back.  We wrapped the foam core with fabric, hot gluing the excess fabric on the back of the foam core. The wrapped foam core was then hot glued into the back of the cabinet.

fabric, covered, foam core, shabby, baskets

The baskets were purchased at a local department store. They matched the fabric perfectly!

The other area that we wanted to bring attention to was the maple top. That's where the graphic came it. 

acorn, acorns, wreath, oak leaves, count your blessings, cabinet

Count your blessings, acorn, oak, hand painted, handpainted, shabby chic
I wanted to allow the wood top to become the highlights in the acorns and wreath.Using a chocolate brown craft paint, I sideloaded the brush and went to work, painting the shadows. I was a little overly ambitious. This only took about 4 hours!!! But it turned out so gorgeous!

When it was all finished, this is what it looked like - before it found a new home 




So, although I hate to think of what November brings, blechhh!  I love the way this cabinet turned out!

6 comments :

  1. Great find and great job restoring it! Love it, thanks for sharing at Redoux.

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    1. Thank you, Charlotte. I love your blog. Thank you for hosting the party and for commenting on my piece.

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  2. This is a such a gorgeous creation!!! Thank you so much for sharing it with us at The Cottage Market : ) hugs... make sure to enter this on Monday over at the Graphics Fairy : ) She will love it too!

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    1. Thank you, Andrea. Thanks for your kind words. They are an encouragement. I believe I shared this with Graphics Fairy on her last linky party.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thank you, Sharon. I love doing watercolor techniques with acrylics and this graphic lent itself to it! Even though it took more time than I liked, it paid off.

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