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I've had my eye on this little piece from my mom's garage for years now. She never knew I wanted it. One day she said she was going to take some stuff to the thrift store and asked if I wanted this little tool drawer cabinet. I was like....umm, yes! As you all may know, I have an obsession with apothecary type cabinets and drawers. Here's what it looked like before I got my hands on it:
Very primitive looking, but definitely not my style. I decided I wanted to try the over cleaner Easy Off method to strip the wood. I have done this to my coffee table and a mirror, and wanted to see how this piece would look with it's bare wood.
I sprayed that thing with the oven cleaner Easy Off probably like 5 times. Had it sit for longer on some of the applications, I scrubbed and scrubbed. It took about 2 hours to get this far. That's seriously with the whole entire thing covered. Didn't get very far, did I? This is to show that sometimes this method does not work! I know it does on some things, since it's worked for me, but on others...there are better ways :) Like sanding or painting stripping.
I decided to skip the whole bare wood idea after all that work and switched to paint. I then used my petroleum jelly and paint method :) I get a little finger amount of the petroleum jelly, rubbed it on the edges then put two coats of paint over it.
Once the paint dried, I used some sandpaper and gently rubbed the edges. The petroleum jelly is also a great way to get some good crackling on the paint. Just put a good amount in a spot, then paint. Don't sand this area when you see that it's cracking, just leave it! If it chips later, all the better for a more natural looking character.
I bought some cute brass drawer pulls and added them to drawers to finish off the piece.
I placed this on the console table in my hallway. It fit perfectly underneath the arches.
When I was in the middle of the Easy Off method, I came across a hand written note on one of the drawers: "To Donna, Thanks for everything. Tom and Carol - 1986" . Kind of fun to see original messages like this! This was found in a friend's old cabin and given to my mom years ago. I'm glad it found it's way to me. Do I have anything in the drawers? Nope. :) It would make a cute tea cabinet in the kitchen...if I drank tea! Maybe one of these days it'll find a good purpose, but for now it's just looks.
This entryway/hallway is also used to house my kids shoes. It's small, but it's definitely functional!
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