Small Home Improvement Project - A "New" China Cabinet

I was so very excited when I found a china cabinet listed on Facebook Marketplace and even more excited when I saw that they were only asking $5 for it.  At that price I assumed it would be a fixxer upper and I was totally fine with that figuring it was worth the risk of $5 to give it a try.  So the youngest and I headed to the next city over and picked it up in our truck.

 

Three shelves and a drawer with a knob missing.

And not my preferred color choice either

The cabinet is the style I wanted and the size I was looking for which has been really difficult to find so I was excited and hopeful.  When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to find it was made of solid wood, in fact it was pretty darn heavy, but the owners helped us load it up and home we went.

The back on the cabinet was in pretty rough condition

Disassembly begins!

I was able to get it unloaded and into my driveway without too much difficulty.  After a more thorough inspection I found it to still be in pretty good shape with a fairly lousy paint job.  The drawer in the bottom of the cabinet had been broken, but the repair job the previous owner had done wasn't too bad.  The drawer is still sturdy and big enough to provide good storage so I can't complain about that.

 

Followed by lots of sanding

Soaking the hardware in straight vinegar helped me strip off the paint

I began to take apart the cabinet by removing the drawer, shelves, top and doors.  The hardware had a lot of paint on it but a soak in some vinegar made the perfect paint stripper to clean it all off as well as the screws too.  I sanded the cabinet to smooth out the paint drips and other imperfections as well as the top and components of the doors.  I had removed the glass from the doors to make it easier for sanding and painting.  The glass also needed a really good cleaning.

The first of two coats of paint go on

Already an amazing transformation

 

Once I was done sanding I wiped everything down with a damp rag to remove dust and debris and set the cabinet up on blocks (two pieces of scrap 2"X4") for painting.  I used leftover paint from our living room walls to paint the interior of the cabinet and the drawer as well as the shelves.  I picked up a quart of Graphic Charcoal paint by Behr to paint the exterior, the doors and the drawer front.

The top required a lot of sanding to remove old paint and a lot 
of nicks, dings and scratches

Then two good coats of paint made all the difference

Lots of pieces and parts

While the paint dried I washed the glass for the doors and got it ready to install.  All of the pieces of trim that hold the glass in place had been sanded and painted to match the doors.  The brackets that hold the top onto the cabinet were given a quick coating of black spray paint to blend in with the new paint color. 

The old knobs from our bathroom vanity

I gave them a good coating of my favorite Metallic spray paint

Next I used some leftover Metallic spray paint to give the old knobs from our bathroom vanity makeover a makeover of their own.  I had filled in the old holes and drilled new ones as the "new" knobs had much smaller holes.  I think they turned out pretty nice.

 

The hinges got a facelift too

After carefully sanding and painting the back
was completely salvageable, much improved!

I had removed the pin hinges from the cabinet and soaked them in vinegar as well to remove the paint that had been slopped onto them.  They cleaned up very nicely like the other hardware and once dry I have them a couple good coats of Metallic paint to match the knobs.

 

Moving it into its new home

Fits perfectly!

The drawer looks great too

Lastly, but definitely not the least, I got to fill it up!  My grandmother's beautiful china and my Christmas china now have a lovely new home.  I finally have an appropriate place to keep my great grandmother's silver in the flatware case I found at a thrift store and refurbished.

 

And then I got to fill it up!
The hardest part was waiting 48 hours for the paint to cure!

My grandmother's 25th wedding anniversary china
and my Christmas china

I am incredibly happy with my china cabinet and how it turned out.  It gives me great joy to have this special place to keep and display my precious china and other heirloom pieces that belonged to my grandmothers and great grandmothers.  They are my treasures and I really love them.

 

I absolutely love it!

I hope you found my latest project was worth the wait.  For you it was a matter of days, but for me I've been waiting years to complete this project.  It was definitely worth the wait and I am very much enjoying it.