A Record Cabinet. Or, How to Salvage Your Missteps.

So.  May is Pet Cancer Awareness Month, I heard recently.

Sigh.

As if I wasn't already starting to feel anxious about how anxious I'll be feeling come mid-July, here's Pet Cancer Awareness Month to jumpstart the anxious.  Not the awareness part -- I feel like there's not enough attention given to pet cancers.  Or maybe there is and I hang out in the incorrect circles.

It's the Hailey part.  The reminder.  And missing her terribly.  And how stupid cancer took her way before she....  And how I don't feel I've even begun to process this whole thing.  Can't get near it with a ten foot pole.  My first Mother's Day without her.  As I glance at the card she gave me one year hanging on the wall.  Well, that my mom gave me from her.  You know what I mean.

Sweet little puppy face.  Seems like yesterday yet forever ago.  I can almost feel that wiggly 20 pound cutie in my arms.

I miss her.  Please, if you can, donate -- type "pet cancer awareness" into a search engine and a slew of sites pop up.  Or pick a rescue.  Rescues need more than just cash, like blankets, newspapers, food, office supplies.  If a donation is not in the cards please share, spread the word.  Thanks.

Ok wait, tissue.....ok.  Linking you back to the post where I mentioned the helpful grief article.

Ok.  Deep breath.  Sigh.

The record cabinet!  Right!  Man, this thing took on a life of its own.

If you remember last, I stripped the paint but did a train wreck of a job.  Pppppppllltttt.  Yuck.  

There's how it looked when I received it, with the (I think) chalk paint.  Chalk paint, milk paint, mud paint...what's next, air paint?  Eye roll.  Sorry if you're into all that gimmicky hootenanny -- I find it all, well, gimmicky hootenanny.  It's just paint.  But to each their own, please do not let my opinions discourage you.

ETA:  I've found the best paint stripper and it's GreenEZ.*  No fumes, soy based, water clean up, won't run, works incredibly well....buy GreenEZ's stripper.


Ugh, I wish Blogger would let me put the photos where I'd like them...Heh.  :)

Well anywhoo.  There's one of the doors on the right and the rest of the cabinet to the left post stripping.  Yikes.

Blaming being distracted.  Blaming the lame-o lighting in the basement bathroom.  Ok, so it's totally my fault.  I do have that second cabinet to try again.

I took a look at the whole mess again yesterday, determined to clean this puppy up and put it to the use I had been planning.  Which is to be a pseudo-dresser for the hall bedroom.  Currently guests only have the floor or window sill to rest anything on which, yeah, is not terribly accommodating.

I gave the whole thing a sanding in lieu of whipping out the stripper one last time.  Oy dear me, tacky sentence, forgive me.  So the sanding, while not the most optimal problem solver, did solve enough problem spots enough allowing me to move on.

The cabinet does lack perfection.  I must get over it.

The big step was deciding on how to refinish the darn thing.  I looked up at my lingering can of Watco Danish Oil.  Head tilt left.  Next to it, Restor-a-Finish.  Head tilt right.  Pause.  Pause pause.

Fumes had not even overtaken my brain and yet it shot off into left field.  What if....(two words that are guaranteed to make Mike panic)...with the grooved front, I make it groovy?  Down came both cans.  Every other "slat" on the doors got the Watco, the RaF went on the remaining ones.

True panic ensued after solely applying the Watco oil as the contrast was, well, substantial, I must say.  A few deep breaths later, a smudge of the RaF and whew....ok.  Whew.

I opted to continue the general theme and applied Watco to the top and top edges, the RaF on the sides.  But guess what?  Despite two coats of the Watco, the second quite heavy, I can't decipher between the two.  Ah well, so it is, heh!

Huh.  No diff.  Weird, right?

After goofing around with the cabinet, I returned to the doors and noticed that the grooves were quite bright.  Filing through my brain catalogue of furniture history, I distinctly remember these grooves typically being dark.

Knowing I couldn't use a thinned acrylic paint as oil and water don't play together, I became a mix master wizard, combining a splop of black oil paint and the RaF.  Is it advised?  No idea.  I reread the can and received no indication that this maneuver was good nor bad, so I went with it.  And eh, whaddya know, it worked!  Mmmk!

Colors look a little greeny-yellowy in this photo, sorry.  I tried to fix it.

With a throw away mini plastic brush, one hand to steady the other, and a mistake-wiper-upper rag, little lines of black paint were again a success.  Ah, the magic of theater will always be with me.

Ok, hopped back to the cabinet.  Yes, in actuality I was rubber banding back and forth.  Maybe not literally.  But, ok, so, right.

The inside was a disaster due to my prior stripping carelessness, and as the back of the doors were, um, quite, um, ruined, I had more decisions to make.

Why not....(the other two word combo that raises Mike's hackles)....ok, going far afield now....paint the interior but cover the door insides with fabric.  Ok, well, then why not cover the shelf in fabric too?

And there we have it folks, shooting off my rocker I went.

I dug out this green velvet-y fabric that I had used eons ago to recover a free-to-me couch.  Hey, why not?!  It's got subtle stripes thereby coordinates with the front, ok, cool, let's do it!

Rustled up the can of FastPrime, gooped up the inside, yanked out the (I have now determined crappy) white satin paint, slathered that on.

Super 77 spray mount carefully coated the doors, then an attempt at smoothing on the fabric precisely straight, then a too-small rotary trimmer removed the excess, and it was time to reattach the doors.  Spray mount at close range on the shelf to contain overspray, smear smear smear of fabric, rotary trimmer to tidy and bam --

-- heh, it's a beaut!  Or it's somethin'.

Finn is very helpful, as you can see.

A coating of the Howard Feed-n-Wax will go on when everything is completely dry.

This photo makes me want to repaint this room like right this minute.

Definitely different!  The cabinet sits opposite the wall mural.  Wish I could get a good shot encompassing it all for you but alas, I am unable to get it, sorry.

Yes, I took pictures of this cabinet in three different rooms trying to find good light.

And yes, I was standing in the closet to get this photo for you, how tiny narrow this room is.  That's the pallet wood clock, randomly floating over the bed, by the way.

The outsides of the doors, as it turns out, are my favorite part.

So what's on tap?  Lots o' cleaning as the 'rents on both sides will be through at various points over the weekend.  Several sewing projects ahead -- outdoor chair cushions as weather is rapidly improving, a nephew birthday present, hopefully an enormous curtain.

Other than that, I'm trying to get my game plan on for the hall bedroom door replacement.  It is time for a bigger project.  Overdue, actually.  So let's get on it.  You'll have to stay tuned.

Finn, my ever-goofy constant companion, says hi by the way:

*The GreenEZ stripper is a GreenEZ affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.