Jewelry Cabinet

I want to talk about this beautiful babe. I happened upon this little guy while I was out for spring clean up. I couldn’t help but to stop and throw it into the back of our truck! It was a little rough looking, and you could tell it had been sitting outside for quite a while. But I just couldn’t pass it up.

After getting it home I knew I had a bit of work in head of me to do, to get it back in useable condition. There was some repair that needed done and it defiantly needed some tough love. However I could not wait to work some of my magic on it. so.. I started!

First I “gutted it” I removed all the old musty felt and all the wonderful glue that came with it. That, my friends was the hardest part. I first started chipping away at the big chunks of glue with a flat head screwdriver. Then using some high grit sandpaper, I carefully remove as much of the left over glue residue as I possibly could. That glue… UGH let me tell you, it was NOT fun!

After all the glue and felt was removed, I flipped it over, removed the legs and top. I had to work on cleaning the bottom of the cabinet. like I said this little guy looked as if it was sitting out for a day or to in the weather. I diluted some bleach with water and whipped down the whole bottom area and any other musty spots I seen. I let it dry. Then I took a low grit sandpaper and sanded the crap (excuse my French) out of the under part of the cabinet. I wanted to make sure there would be no chance of any mold or any type of musty smell forming later on.

I decided to use a regular acrylic paint on the inside to give it an accent color. I already had sanded the inside shelves to remove the glue so all I had to do was sand down the inside walls. and give them a few coats of paint. 3 coats to be exact. I wanted to make sure the light cream color paint evenly coated the inside.

In the meantime I wanted to keep the outer shells color, but wanted it to look more rustic. I used a high grit of sandpaper on an orbital palm sander and lightly went over the whole out side of the cabinet. Making sure to hit all the edges and corners of the body to make all the lines and detailed parts stick out. I repeated this same thing on the 2 drawers, legs, and top so they would have the same rustic affect.

After everything was sanded and the inside was painted, I wanted to come up with something to replace the bottom drawer that was missing. I know I would not be able to find just any random drawer and make it fit. I also didn’t want to lave a gaping hole, with no purpose in the bottom on this beautiful stand. So.. I took a different approach. I decided to go on a more simple rout and just make the best out of what I had on hand. I simply cut a piece of chicken wire, painted it with the same acrylic paint I used on the interior, and stapled it to the inside of the bottom of the cabinet. Wa-La! taken care of! No more gaping random hole!

After using a tack cloth and whipping the whole cabinet down. I coated the whole thing with Minwax Polycrylic (a shiny / glossy protective clear top coat) and let it dry. This top coat will protect the surface of the cabinet from normal wear and tare. I probably did about 3 coats of this protective coat just to make sure it was sealed. I then got new bolts and screwed the legs back into place. Most of the screws were missing or loose so I decide to replace them so everything would hold together perfectly.

For the finishing touch I wanted to add a neat design to the shelves to make them stand out. I dug threw some on my tissue papers, wrapping papers, and scrapbooking pages to see what I had. I ended up finding a scrapbook page that would match the paint and exterior perfectly! I was so excited! I decide to use modge podge ( A type of glue used for many crafts) AKA SOME AMAZING CRAP! I cut the paer to the exact size of the shelf. Then I coated the shelf with modge poge and pressed the paper down. I used a old credit card to squeegee the left over glue out from under the paper. I then painted another coat over top top the paper to seal it onto the wood. After both shelves were done and dry. I used the Minwax Polycrylic and re coated the shelves to give them a harder protective coat.

Now for the top. I needed to do something about the worn and broken mirror. I really didn’t know what to do with this part. I decided to go around to some of my local stores in hopes of finding a mirror that would be cheap and a close fit. I didn’t want to spand much and I didn’t want anything fancy. I ended up at Lowes. I asked around to see if they had any mirrors around that size. After looking around, the employee whom I asked tracked me down in the store and told me he may have found something that would work! He took me over to the glass cutting area. He pulled out a scrap piece of mirror that they cut for a customer , he them measured my old mirror an dcut the new scrap piece (as close as he could) to the same size and gave me it for $1.00!! WHAT? a $1.00??? YES a $1.00!!!! ABSOULITY AWESOME RIGHT? I felt so blessed after this! What a great guy and employee!

After all that I went straight home and started working on replacing the mirror! The old mirror had beveled and curved edges and the new one was cut straight. SO…I got my handy dandy boyfriend (Jesse) to cut out the curved indented edges of the top and make them straight so the new mirror would fit snuggly down into the slots of the top. WA-LA! DONE! I then used liquid nail to glue the mirror in and let it dry over night!

The next day I decided to add chains to each side of the top so it would stay open for use. with out them the lid would fall straight back and eventually break off or crack the mirror. I found some old jewelry in my little jewelry collection and cut it in half! I then used tiny screws and screwed the last links to the tom and lid! It turned out pretty darn great if I had to say myself!

After all that It was finally ready for its new home! This beauty sold before I was done with it! That made me even more excited to finish this little guy! I hope you all enjoyed my little DIY blog today! Make sure to visit my facebook: Junk to Gems. Or you can follow me on Instagram: stephnatta to see what I’m flipping next!