Here it is, my last creation -in a massive post with tons of pictures and one of the most detailed making-of process up to date!
I fell in love with this cute cupboard from the beginning of the 20th Century the moment I saw it, and went straight to work with it as soon as I got it, even putting aside some other current projects. It has lovely proportions, nice rounded corners and details, it is very well built.. it just needed to get a brighter look and a loving restoration.
But I went a little further than that: I envisioned those doors with glass panels, taking off quite a lot of 'visual weight' and transforming the cupboard into a linen cabinet. Also good for a big bathroom, to keep nice crockery in the dining room or the kitchen, books in the living room... it would look good anywhere in the house, really!
Measures: 73cm wide, 41cm deep, 120cm high
General views:
And some details:
THE CABINET, BEFORE:
As it was when I got it (please add two tons of dirt and dust with your imagination, as it is not appreciated in the pics)
Even though the handles and keyhole were covered by many layers of paint, their lovely shapes looked already promising -it was hard, but great to reveal their original brass beauty!
The top corners were rather scratched, showing at least five coats of paint of different colours, plus a reddish layer of mahogany tone varnish underneath it all. That gave me the idea to distress the whole surface of the cabinet, and to leave the top as it was in origin.
THE PROCESS, STEP BY STEP:
1/Body of the cabinet
First, cleaning and emptying it, then many long dusty hours of sanding to smooth the last white coat of paint (that was rather clumsily applied) and reveal some of the others underneath, with at least two tones of green. This way, the chipped parts and rounded corners got enhanced as well.
Making a custom door stop and polishing the keyhole and handles,
Then, the tricky part: cutting the door panels... without being able to
remove the doors! (as they have no hinges -they pivot-, removing them
would have meant to dismantle the whole piece of furniture, hence
destroying it). One down -yipee. And *gasp* now there was no turning
round... keep going, then!
Both cut. Great releave, to see that it had been a good idea... phew.
Painting the inside white, to gain light and visual space, then mixing the enamel paint to get a suitable colour for the front panels inside
First attempt was a big NO, but a great base for the green tone that I applied on top. I got exactly the same 'early-20th-Century-green' as the colour showing from the distressed parts! Bingo.
Cutting the angles of all the glass frame parts, inside and out (you can see that I had already given the first coat of varnish to the cleared top, that is because I had to wait to get the pieces of glass -we'll go to that top bit later on). Below, mounting the inside frames: again tricky, again because I couldn't remove the doors)
Then, I varnished and polished the whole body of the cabinet, and painted the inside frames white (I decided on that afterwards, the logical step would have been to paint them prior mounting!)
Setting the glass panels in place, and mounting the outside frames (these ones already painted, of course) -Looking good! But I wasn't close to the end, yet...
2/Top of the cabinet
After a few tries with the sander, it became clear that it would be rather hard to take off all those coats of old paint... I had to use a chemical remover, somethig that I avoid as much as possible -for ecological reasons, more than anything else. And even though I left it the maximum time of half an hour, I had to apply a second layer to get rid of the last coat of green and most of the original varnish...
Sanding the -almost- bare surface. Those left over shades would give a richer depth to the finished look. First coat of varnish, in the same mahogany colour of the original one. And, on top of it, a darker coat (cherished wengue) to tone it down. Once polished, it was gorgeous!
3/Shelves
Removing the horrid sheets of plastic that were glued to the top part of the shelves, then scraping off the bits of adhesive
and sanding that side to restore it to its natural beauty. The bottom side was fine in terms of sticky surface, it only needed a good sanding -plus it was in better shape
so I turned both boards upside-down and mounted them on custom cut pieces of pine wood (to gain heigth once placed inside the cabinet, as they were set too low).
Painting the bottom sides white, to get a brighter interior in the cupboard, and clear-varnishing the top parts
Finally, polishing and putting the shelves back inside the cabinet. Ta-daa! set back and admire the result of four days of hard work!
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