a wee Meenit: Built in cabinet

Monday, September 26, 2011

Antique built in Cabinets

One of my most favorite find is also my best find as far as value! About 7 years ago I stopped at a garage sale on a Saturday after work. It was apparent the guy was done for the day, he was already putting stuff up.

The built ins were not side by side so it was hard for me to vision what they looked like. They came out of an old house in the city of St. Louis. There is no back to them, but it is custom made as they are not the same size. The left is slightly wider than the right. There are even adjustable shelves!

I asked him how much & he said $35. Silence. Excuse me, how much? $35.
Me: OMG!!! what a steal! My only issue is I had a huge rocking horse in the way back that I was taking to an artist to paint it into a Zebra for my Morgan's nursery. I don't know how I did it, but it was not easy to get it all in a small SUV at 7 months pregnant!

When I got it home I had to wash it as it clearly had nicotine stain on it. Ironically it has never smelled of smoke. As I hit it with some Clorox spray, the nicotine just dripped down the cabinet. The paint and hardware are so perfect, I have never touched them in the 7 years I have had it. Although I find my self eyeing it from time to time & thinking IF I did paint it, what color would I do. Like I said my favorite piece & best score. Ones like it at Pottery Barn go for $1500!!

Anywhoo, it is in my breakfast area, near our kitchen table. The top is at about the height of a mantel & so big, it is like having another mantel to decorate. I decorate it for all the holidays & seasons. This year for Fall I used dried plants & silk floral stems tucked behind a large pumpkin. Simple. Easy. I do need to reorganize the contents as I store a lot of my antiques in there while I am not using them. Oh well, another addition to the list! Hope you like!!

Linking to:

Fall Mantel & Built Ins

My mantel & built-ins had seen better days. They became a hodge podge of kids games, books & just very messy!

The Mr. built these a few years ago. When I asked him to build some he looked at me

like I had 3 heads.

He said he was not a carpenter, but I knew he had SOME carpentry skills in there. He started with upper kitchen cabinets from Home Depot, a bathroom base stuck out way too much. He bought MDF for the top & shelves, bead board for the back of the shelves. I wanted them to be lit up, but not being glass, if I put a pot light in the ceiling, only the top shelf would be illuminated. Then I thought about rope lights. In order for them to have enough room to be mounted on the INSIDE of the trim, he had to leave a space between the front of the shelf ledge & trim piece. Some trim, rope lights, knobs, paint & now we have someplace to hide away all the kid toys.

Ok, on to the reveal. I lived with the white bead board but knew I wanted to paint it to make the objects on the shelves pop. In comes Annie Sloan chalk paint. I had 1/2 can left over from my Antibes green vanity makeover you can see here.

I did 2 coats with a little Old White & a touch of water added to the green.

I thought it would be quick & easy to slap some paint on them. Ha. Not so much. Because I had 3 shelves, 2 side walls, a top & bottom, there was a lot of cutting in that had to be done.

Here is a close up of the mantle, Not my best work. Can you tell I was done with the decorating & painting? I may still redo it a bit or just wait a week for the Halloween decor to go up.

Greek Blue Chalk Paint pumpkins you can see tutorial here.

The top of the cabinet base needed to be painted too, so I broke out some MORE ASCP in Graphite, a sample pot I got @ the workshop I attended. 2 coats & clear wax then it was on to the decorating.

Some of my deer collection. This is a very old Celluloid deer.

Now let me start by saying fall is my favorite time of year. I have LOTS of stuff. Mr. @ some point yesterday told me it looked like an episode of Hoarders. Meenie! OK, maybe he is right, but I think I was so excited to see my 'normal decor' against the new paint that when you add my fall stuff to it, it makes for very filled bookcases. But I like it. For now. Until the Halloween stuff is added to it! THEN it will look like an episode of Hoarders!