Painted Cabinet

This cabinet has been sitting in the Garage for several years waiting for a makeover.  

I finally decided how to make it over and also where to use it in the house.

We have a crazy house.  There are too many doorways and too many hallways.  I swear half the house is made up of hallways.  I don't know what the designers where thinking.

Anyway,  there is an extra doorway in the kitchen I really didn't need.  I decided to place this cabinet in the doorway and give myself a little extra storage in the kitchen. It measured to be a pretty close fit.  Besides who doesn't need more storage in the kitchen?

OOPS!  I forgot to take before pictures before I started painting.  This is an inexpensive melamine shelf that was just too dark for my tastes.  So of course, out came the chalk paint.  As you can tell from the picture the cabinet started out as a faux dark walnut.

I chose to use two colors on this project.  Paris gray and white.

I began by painting the main body and shelves white.

And the back panel gray.

I also thought I would add a little gray to the door panels at the bottom.

Nice, but just too plain.

I went to my studio and pulled out the paper clay.

I also pulled out one of my IOD silicone molds to make a few appliqués.  I dusted the mold with cornstarch and started creating my appliqués.

I removed the piece from the mold right away while it was still wet.  You can leave the pieces in the molds until dry but paper clay has the tendency to warp.  By applying it to the cabinet while wet the appliqués will remain flat.

I applied Tacky Glue to the back.

Next,  I gently adhered the piece to the cabinet, measuring each addition to make sure they lined up with each other.  If your piece is larger and heavier you can hold it in place with blue painters tape.  These pieces where small, so I just held them in place for a few seconds.

I made 3 pieces for the top and one for each door.

Once they where thoroughly dry I painted them.  White at the top with gray highlights and gray on the doors with white highlights.

Love the extra storage and especially love having a spot out of the way for my canisters on the bottom shelf.

This cabinet is not very deep so the it only sticks out into the kitchen a couple of inches then there is the 4 inch thickness of the wall leaving only an inch protruding on the living room side.

So you say, but if this is in the doorway what to do about the backside that faces my living room.

Paint, of course.

I painted the backside gray over the entire piece and hung a chalkboard I made in an oval picture frame, added a couple of angles at the top and set a small table in front of it.  Don't really notice that this area was once a doorway now.  My husband said it look like a door you need a doorknob on it.  No problem, I had a cast iron faux doorknob I hot glued to the back and added a gold tassel.  Oh, also an uplight to add a little light to this dark little corner.

It is hard to notice this was just an empty doorway not long ago.

Happy Decorating!