Several weeks ago my partner in sale-ing and I stopped by a friend's sale. I definitely wasn't expecting to find the perfect thing there, but find it I did! Well...almost perfect:
What it was was an entertainment shelf. The kind of thing with the false cardboard back that you can punch the holes out of to run your cords through. But I saw its potential! At $8 even if I failed I wasn't out much! We loaded it up and carried on!
I was toying with the idea of losing the glass doors. I wasn't sure they would fit with my vision. As we unloaded it from the car one of the doors came off, no big deal, I carried up to the porch for safe keeping. Somehow the minute I got on the porch it shattered into a million pieces! I'm not sure how it happened but it made my decision for me! And thank goodness for safety glass!
After a couple more weeks of lolly gagging and picking out paint colors I finally got to work! I researched the heck out of how to paint that crappy fiberboard manufactured furniture and actually make the paint stick! Seems the secret is lots of sanding and lots of primer!
Here it is all sanded:
In hindsight I really should have sanded it more but I have the upper body strength of a T-rex and I was wishing for a belt sander! In addition to the painting I was planning to do I also wanted to make sure that the shelves had some kind of rim on them to keep my special dishes from sliding off. I purchased a very very long piece of what I suppose is some sort of wood trim and nailed strips onto the edge of each shelf. Not only does it keep things on the shelf, it looks pretty sharp too!
I was also delighted to find that the front of the drawer came right off, that made painting a lot easier as I didn't need to paint the whole drawer and I didn't want to ruin the hardware.
Here are the colors I went with!
I did hit a few snags. After painting the green portions I took off the tape that I had used to protect the areas that would be pale yellow...and it took of some of the green paint too! It doesn't take much to make the paint want to abandon this material so you really have to treat it gingerly. As such my corners and edges aren't as sharp as I might like. Also in putting the shelves back in I scraped off some paint on the inside and had to touch that up. I expect that next time we move I'll have issues with it again, but I have plenty of paint left...and Lowes stored my colors!
Here it is all finished and empty:
I also wanted to get new knobs for the drawer but that hasn't happened yet as I want to find just the perfect ones! I put the old ones back on for now. And now, the most important part...how good it looks with my Grandma's china!!
I'm not totally sure how to properly display china, I may get a plate stand or two, maybe something to lift up that back row of tea cups and saucers, but overall I think it looks fantastic!
Now my most special things will be with me everyday! And that makes me super duper happy!
I would also like to point out the fantastic skull and bones platter. This was a delightful wedding gift from my friend over at Folded Pigs! I don't suppose it would be my Grandma's taste, but a little old a little new right?
Materials:
-1 Thrifted entertainment shelf
-1 gal Valspar-Jalepeno Jelly
-1 qt Olympia-Silk Sails
-Various painting and sanding who's its and what's its
-Long strip of molding cut down for the shelf edges
Finally I'm going to try to start up a regular blogging schedule. Its mostly for me I suppose, just as an exercise and to keep me in mind of what I'm working on, but perhaps you will find some interest in it as well!
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