I almost drove by the yard sale where I found this great little cabinet. It looked like it was going to be one of those sales that is all toys and clothes, which is great for moms with young children, but not usually so good for a picker like me. I'm not sure what it was supposed to be used for originally, the guy I bought it from said his mom used it in Japan as her sewing cabinet, but I thought it would make a great little kitchen cabinet.
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it altogether before I started working on it. It didn't look like much especially with the plexiglass in one door, and nothing in the other top door, but I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it. I saw it in a shabby white finish with some sort of chicken wire doors. That farm wire just about kicked my hubby's butt. I thought we could just staple it on the back, but the doors have to slide past each other which meant that it had to be recessed into where the plexiglass was. First he routed the inside edge enough to accept the wire, but then the whole doors started to come apart, so he reglued both of them. Then both the top and bottom doors were sticky and didn't want to slide. So out came the router again and he skimmed off some material on the top and bottom of each door. Now the wire is in, and all the doors slide like butter.
So here I am one beautiful day working on it. This is one of the few pictures you'll probably see of me since I am really, really not photogenic. Oh yeah, I do have shorts on under my long work shirt.
Anyhow, I lightly sanded it just to remove any old loose finish, mixed up some homemade creamy white chalk paint, and went to town on it. It didn't take long to brush it on, I just followed the wood grain and let it show through in some spots. Then I sanded here and there where I thought it would have naturally worn over time. I knew that I didn't want to use polyurethane as a finish because it would yellow it too much, so I tried a plain paste wax but it didn't give it enough depth. My husband suggested using my Miss Mustard Seed's Antiquing Wax, but I only have a little so am saving it for something special. I read somewhere (sorry I can't remember where) that you could mix regular paste wax and stain to make a dark stain, so I thought why not try it. I used about a quarter of a cup of Minwax paste wax to maybe 4 or 5 drops of ebony stain and mixed it up really good. It looked like something my husband would use to pack bearings in a car, but it worked great. I just rubbed it in all over, again following the wood grain and then buffed it off. It's a little bit of work but I love how it turned out.
These are some old tins that I've had around forever. I think it is time for someone else to love them now.
Her she is altogether, what do you think?
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