Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Inspired to Design. Repurpose an old built in



Many many years back when I was just a little itty bitty little girl, I lived in a rental home in Milwaukee. There, in the basement, was this built in china cabinet. I have no idea how old the thing was but when my parents moved from the place, they literally stripped everything from the basement which included this ugly old built in. My mom stored it in her garage for years. Even when my parents divorced it remained a dead fixture in the corner. When I got married way back when hmm.. about 17 years ago my mom gave it to me. We sanded it down and put a sealant on it and then it became our built in. Still remained a wall fixture because it never had a bottom or backside. Recently when we purchased this foreclosure it was time to get rid of most of our things for space sake. I knew somewhere in my mind there had to be a place for the piece of history. I decided to create an island for my kitchen. I began with deciding the top for it. Initially I thought marble? Laminate? Butcher block? None of that seemed to give me a mental design rush so I decided to purchase some cheap wood, distress it and poly the top for what I call today my masterpiece. I ended up painting the cabinet white and distressing it. I found some old antique style drawer pulls and some rod iron shelf brackets and I went to town.

I started by cleaning the whole cabinet with soap and water. I then removed any hardware and sanded the whole thing down by hand


 Measured and with some help from a friend started cutting
Next we added a piece of wainscoting as the backing
Began painting with the cheapest paint I could find. It was a Bogo sale.
Next added my clearanced out hardware from Hobby Lobby. I believe I paid $1.67 a piece for the pulls


 Then I distressed the entire thing with a hand sander.
Next I polyurethaned the to.

Lastly we added the little side shelves and the saddle stools which I got off of craigslist; 4 for $30.. I'm so happy with it because instead of dragging everything to the table each night the kids hop up on a stool and I just swing around with the grub:)

Intentionally Inspire yourself to repurpose something today
xoxo
Kristin




1 comment:

  1. Absolutely brilliant. I just love things with a history. And your workmanship is top notch. You should be so proud.

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