Thursday, March 5, 2015

ANOTHER CHECK OFF THE PROJECTS LIST!

Refitting the inside of the armoire in the living room finally surfaced to the top of our project's list. When we moved into this house a couple of years ago we no longer had a spot for the china cabinet and we had this large indented area that needed to be filled and I was having a problem coming up with the inspiration as to what kind of furniture to place in this niche.
At the same time I also had a bedroom set that would not work in the new house so I found a local consignment shop and made the necessary arrangements to sell the bedroom set. While at the shop I spotted this beautiful media center and realized that it could be re-purposed as a china/linen cabinet. This particular piece is by South Cone and was very expensive when originally sold, is made of solid reclaimed wood and had a higher price than I wanted to pay.  They did however have a sign that read "we encourage you to make an offer." So I made an offer of half of what they were asking and it was mine. Point is these pieces are out there at consignment shops, thrift stores, used furniture places, etc. as they were designed for huge televisions and they can be had at a reasonable price.
 I fully realize that not everyone has a clever husband but the shelves could be cut from MDF at your local lumber/big box store and easily installed (cut the side rails from 1x2) using nails and glue place the side pieces and the shelves. A piece of press-board was used to cover the hole (originally for cords). If using MDF you would paint the wood rather than stain.

This is a view of the cabinet with one of the new shelves just sitting inside - we did graduated shelves so that the items on the shelves would be easily accessible and to lessen the chance of damaging items taking them out of the cabinet.
 The wood was first painted with a wood conditioner, then the gel stain and finally two coats of polyurethane.
The bottom of the cabinet was designed for storage of VHS tapes, etc. and is perfect for linen storage.  The other side of the bottom of the cabinet is just two wide shelves making for great storage for placemats, etc.
Okay, here is the really embarrassing part - seems as though the cabinet had become just another storage place, somewhere to stick things I did not have any other place to store them.
At last organization.  Just the addition of the two graduated shelves has made the cabinet a safe and easy place for my Danish Fern dishes and other items. The lower shelves (great for platters and other large plates) were part of the original cabinet they were for VHS and other players.

Resource

Danish Fern (erthenware) by Burleigh, England - pattern revived by Martha-by-Mail and then other sellers.  Is now only available on auction sites and places like Replacements. Here is a link to more information over at Good Things by David: Link

Stains and finishes, Hardware stores, online and big box stores.

Entertainment cabinets, Consignment, thrift and used furniture stores.

Thank you for stopping by.


 

8 comments:

  1. Look at that wonderful cabinet of yours!! Bravo Joy, BRAVO!!!! Again, your blog continues to inspire me and countless others. Keep at it my friend, keep at it.

    LOVE the Danish Fern!

    Bisou bisou,
    David

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    1. Thank you for your kind words David - coming from you means an awful lot to me. BTW, the big hole in the cabinet is for my platter, guess I forgot to put it inside before I snapped the pic! xxoo, j.

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  2. Love it! Great way to repurpose...very creative..you and hubby!!

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    1. Thank you so much Kim and you are correct about hubby - I am so blessed to have him in so many ways and I am sure he gets tired of hearing "honey, do you think you can......." He rarely says no and he is so careful about his projects - in fact he did not want me to show the cabinet inside (err..what would be the purpose of the post???) because he said "if I had known you were going to show it on your blog I would have done it differently. I was thrilled with the results, silly man. Thank you again for your comment. j.

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  3. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN'T DO???? THIS IS A JOB WELL DONE!!!!!!!!
    LOVE THE BOWL ON TOP!!!!!! YOU HAVE FANTASTIC VISION!!!!!!

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words Anonymous - hubby should get most of the credit on this one - I just say "honey could you make some shelves for this?" Then he works his magic. I love the pot too - it traveled here from Colorado and found a home on the top of this cabinet. Thanks for stopping by - again. j.

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  4. What a lovely idea! It's wonder to save old pieces and recreate. A beautiful way to recycle.

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  5. I totally agree Co.Co. it would have been such a shame for this beautiful piece of furniture to be sold for scrap wood. I was almost hesitant to blog this because not everyone would want or need this but decided that if nothing else it might plant the seed for "reuse, re-purpose." There are lots of these cabinets out there and are wonderful for any room in the house. Paint one white and add cute pulls for a nursery - the top is large enough to accommodate a rod to hang clothing, etc. In a large bathroom perfect for towel storage, etc. I could go on and on about this. Thank you so much for your comment. j.

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