Tony surprised me one afternoon last summer with this amazing piece of furniture. 
I had no idea that he was going to pick this piece up, so when he told me to go outside and look in the back of his truck, I was intrigued (and a bit nervous!) When I saw this beauty, I fell in love at first sight.
This piece had such great bones and I saw potential immediately- maybe a little too much potential! A million ideas flooded my head- adding wooden details to the front of the cabinet, painting it a few different colors, stenciling a design on it and then some. I wanted to pay tribute to this MAD MEN’s era treasure, and for a while I was stumped! I moved it into our house and placed it on a wall in between our kitchen and dining space. We lack a bit of counter space when it comes to our kitchen, so the top part of this cabinet became the home for our Keurig and coffee making essentials.
And for a few months (the longest I have ever taken on a project ever) I just “got to know it.” I had to get a feel for this piece and what I wanted to highlight about it. My normal solution to making over an old piece of furniture involves some sanding, painting and sealing. But I could not come up with a color that seemed right for the outside. The top of the piece was scratched and stained badly, but the rest of the exterior was in good shape. I played around with leaving the exterior as it was, with the exception of the top. I also began to picture the function of this piece and faced the reality that there would be many wet drinks and spills in its future and that lead me to the conclusion that I needed to do something other than paint. I went to Lowe’s and Home Depot to try to find some self adhesive tiles (like the kind you see on a kitchen or bathroom back splash) but the choices were limited and the price was steep.
Then I got to thinking about my favorite craft medium, Mod Podge, and some good old fashioned paint sample swatches. Suddenly the possibilities of “tile” colors were endless. When I first moved into our house, I went a little nuts with color. I wanted to leave the house neutral, but painted every piece of furniture in sight. And I love color. So before I knew it, color ruled my house and it looked like Pinterest threw up all over the place, (and not in a good way.) Prior to this project, I toned down some of the red and yellow and orange, and replaced them with greens/blues/turquoises/taupes.
But the 1960’s were BOLD, so I decided to incorporate a little red for this piece too.
Supplies: Mod Podge, Paint swatches, (lots of them) scissors or paper cutter, paint, and my favorite sealer: Polyacrylic by Minwax.
I started with the top. After sanding it, I began the very tedious and time consuming task of cutting paint swatches down into even square shapes. If I were to do this again, I would probably buy some sort of square shaped paper punch to not only save time, but have the squares be the right proportion every time. If you look too closely at my finished piece, you will see that my squares are not the most even that you will find. When I had all the squares I wanted, I came up with a pattern for the first two rows and then applied a thick layer of Mod Podge (MP) to the top. I worked quickly to get each “tile” in place before the MP dried and then applied another layer of MP on top once it had dried. I worked about two rows at a time, trying to not have too many like colors beside each other. When the top was done, I applied a couple more coats of MP over the entire top, and let it dry overnight. Mod Podge is not water proof, so I knew it had to be sealed. My favorite furniture sealer is Minwax Polyacrylic Water based sealer. There is no color tint to it, so it goes on perfectly clear. I prefer the satin finish so the furniture doesn’t look too shiny. I probably applied 4 coats of this to the top. Maybe a bit much, but I kept picturing wet drinks getting placed on the surface and wanted to make sure that it would be safe.
Next I sanded down the inside. I tried to come up with a purpose for the high ball glasses insert, but couldn’t come up with anything so out it came. Tony had an old wooden wine/liquor holder so we sawed it down to size and decided it would make a perfect insert for the bottom shelf to store wine bottles. I sanded that down too and painted the entire inside with… RED chalkboard paint!
I didn’t realize that you can buy chalkboard paint and have it tinted to the color of your choice. Why chalkboard paint? Because I had this vision of writing the menu for the event/occasion on the inside lid of the cabinet!
Lastly, I tackled the inside, fold down shelf. It was a white laminate type of material that had been stained by a pink streak of something or other. I didn’t want to just paint it, so I got out my scissors and cut and applied more paint swatch “tiles.” It was a TON of work, but I couldn’t be happier with the end result. This baby will be in our home no matter where we live! It truly is my favorite furniture redo project so far because I kept the original vibe of the piece while still adding my own flair!
Some women like flowers… I’ll take a vintage piece of furniture any day!
