Found this Great Wood China Cabinet

I watch a lot of HGTV, and one of my favorite shows is Flea Market Flip. I think the thing that appeals to me most is that the contestants take a seemingly piece of junk and repurpose it in to a salable product. So after binge watching a days worth of episodes, I came across a China cabinet that the neighbor had out at the curb. After careful review, saw that it was all wood, maybe 60 years old and had great detail. The unit was busted up, but I thought I could do something with it.

I started by removing the top and the sides. I planned on using these parts to make a hall mirror in the future, but thats a later project (keep an eye out for that post!!!), but right now my focus was on the base.

When I removed the sides, there was some damage from the glue and where they were tacked to the base. I was going to paint the top of the base with a faux finish, so I knew I could hide a multitude of sins. I fixed the imperfections with wood filler and sanded the top: this had to be done 2 or 3X because of the shrinkage.

I had to glue and clamp the drawers. In consideration of the age, they were in real good shape, but I thought reinforcing them was necessary.

The thing that appealed to me about this piece was the detailed carvings in the drawer faces and the legs. Unfortunately, one of the legs had some chew marks on the edge. I used some JB Weld and reshaped the corner. At first it looked sloppy and I wasn't sure if the end result would have been acceptable: but after I sanded it and ultimately painter it, you could never tell.

At the time I had watched a bunch of videos that demonstrated the use of chalk pain and dark wax, I had this in mind for this project, as I thought the carvings would really lend themselves to accenting the details.

Since this was my first up-cycle furniture project, I didn't want to spend the money for real chalk paint, I decided to make my own. I used a combination of 1/3 cup of plaster of Paris and 1/3 cup of cool water; then I stirred it until it was completely smooth. Then I mixed that with 1 cup of latex paint and stir thoroughly. The results were awesome!!!

Although I loved the way this project came out, I didn't have a place for it in my house. So I put it on Craigslist and on the second day I had someone come and pick it up.....they paid $150 for it!!!!!!! Not bad for something from the neighbors garbage and some left over paint I had in the garage.