Weekend Project

As we prepare for the upcoming school year, I have been tossing around the idea of switching out my "china cabinet", "buffet", or whatever you wanna call it.  It's almost 6ft long and while I have always LOVED it, it just served as a catch all.  I can't fathom it's been cleared off for more than 24 hours since we moved in 2 years ago.

While browsing Facebook swap and shops, I saw this cute cabinet but we just didn't have the extra money so I dismissed it.  I kept thinking about it and even mentioned it to my friend Michelle.  I felt it would open up the kitchen while providing storage for school.  She immediately asked if I would sell her my current cabinet.  I checked to see if the Facebook cabinet was still available and it was!

Here it is!  I don't know if you can see but near the top there are two brass hook and eye closures screwed into the doors.  Ugh, Frustrating because this is an antique with dove tail joints.  I removed those, filled the holes, and installed magnet catches.  It's only 3 feet wide and the difference in space amazing.  It needed a little TLC so first thing was to replace the shelving supports.  They were tiny and split, not to mention stapled in.  I don't know how it held all the books the previous owner had in it!

I love Home Depot's cutting area.  I bought the 1x2 (for $1.25) and they cut it into 6 12" sections for me.  These are literally twice the size of the previous supports.  I glued and screwed them in.  Perfect!  Now it's time for paint.  The interior was multiple colors and now with my new parts it needed a fresh coat of paint.  Red paint of course.

After all those are chicken wired doors and a pop of red is my favorite decorating tip.  After painting the shelving, I couldn't wait to get them on their new supports.

While at Home Depot I picked up a 6ft board to make the Bakery sign I have been wanting for 2 years.  While I waited for the red to dry I attacked my new board, quite literally.  I hammered, sanded, hit, poked, and whacked it.  Once it was sufficiently distressed I painted it.  I was really wanting a hand painted sign that looked like a poor old baker threw it together and had it out front of his bakery. 

So here's the finished product!  Our new dining room and all it cost was a whopping $10 for the wood.  We had the paint and I sold the old cabinet for what the new cost.  The kitchen and dining room seem to have doubled in size.  Not so bad!!!