Saturday, September 18, 2010

As promised :)

As promised I got my project finished today, and I can show you why I had purple paint fingers.
The Project-

Meet the funky (and by funky I don't mean cool per-say... I mean peeling laminate and two inches of dust) little record cabinet I found at a thrift store. (Yes the one by my work, and yes I'm obsessed, lol). This poor little piece was in dire need of a make over, and the price was definitely right.






My original plan was to sand, prime, and paint this a chocolate brown. It was going to go under the bird painting I just did. I wasn't too crazy about the glass doors on front. My mom saw it and feel in love with the visible storage though, and traded me the cool little cabinet I showed you before. Mom and I went to the paint store, and she picked out a deep plum color. (for the record, I really hate purple, and I wasn't too excited about this project... but it was totally worth the trade, so I went ahead on.) Mom had some fun floral fabric that she wanted me to line the back with. I had an ah-ha moment and talked her into lining the bottom as well. (so glad we did)

mini-tutorial

mom had some quilt piecing plastic laying around, so we used it to adhere the fabric to. Here it is measured and cut to size.
 I sprayed each of the plastic pieces with some Elmer's spray adhesive. I had no idea they made one, but it was pretty good.
 Then we cut the access away, and gave the edges a good spray.
 Then we folded the extra fabric to the back to make a nice egde.
 This is mom doing some folding. She wanted it today, so I told her we could get it done faster if she came down and helped a bit.
Then we sprayed inside the cabinet and attached our two panels.
I had originally planned on painting the legs purple to match, but my brush was not doing a very even coat on the round legs. Mom had the idea to spray paint them black, so we went with it. 

ANDDDD.... Here's the result!
Here it is with some "quick and dirty" styling.


 Good shot of the fabric and the legs. I wasn't really confident about how this piece would work out, but it came together beautifully!

Aww, blue tea cups and yellow flowers :) Before anyone leaves comments about this color combo reminding them of a certain (hatable) green and purple dinosaur, lol, remember this is not staying in my house :)


Oh, and who's that little fluffy guy sitting on the books?

He is a little monkey/thing I crocheted. I call him Rongo Rongo, and he is quite photogenic :)

This is where I had planned to end this post, BUT my prints from Laura George came in today. (shipped them to my mom's house) So I went up to mom's to get them. She wanted a little help styling the cabinet with some of her accessories, so....
Here's how it looks in real life. She is using it to hold all her dulcimer books and music. She's got a very eclectic vibe going on in her living room right now, and while it's not my style, I really think it looks good. She loves the cabinet and was super happy with the make-over. She kept telling me how much she loved it, and then sitting, looking, at it and smiling. It doesn't get much better than that! ;)

So for you people who just skip all the lovely story-telling and touchy feely crap... here's the before and after pictures.
I'm going fabric shopping for my bench tomorrow... don't think I'll have that one done by next weekend, but I'll try!

<3 Clare

11 comments:

  1. That is just fantastic and inspiring!!

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  2. Awesome....so 50s chic! Love it. Love the fabric and the colour. The black legs are perfect.

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  3. thanks :)I was really unsure about the black, but just went for it... this piece really would have lacked that "pow" factor without it's sassy black legs, lol

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  4. looks great! My husband and I really love midcentury pieces. What a steal!

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  5. Midcentury is totally my design ascetic :)I love how clean and boxy the lines are. Did you see the fabulous secretary desk I bought a week and a half ago?

    When I saw the price tag on this little record cabinet I was like "done!" Since my mom traded me a nicer record cabinet, I was less heart broken to give her this one, but I do love how it came out. :)

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  6. awesome!!! i'm sure your mom was sooooo thrilled.
    which makes your heart happy:O)

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  7. yeah :) it does... she's been talking about it to everybody, lol. She's got a picture on her phone she keeps showing off.

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  8. This is the greatest! What I'm dying to know is how in the world you were able to cut the fabric to fit so perfectly without breaking the whole thing apart!?

    http://thriftyandshameless.blogspot.com

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