Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Oh my... I've done it again....

Disclaimer: This was totally not my fault.

Here's the story....

A friend of mine invited me to photograph his 1700's house and barns last week. It was great fun rummaging through the barns and through the house. It's a rental property now and is currently empty because of flooding last summer. As a result there was extensive damage to the lower level of the house. Mainly the cellar which had a massive walk-in fireplace. If those walls could talk!

Anyhow....  while exploring the cellar we saw this poor old cupboard up-ended and laying on its side. I suggested he take it home for his wife as it was a sweet old thing. Long story short... he offered it to me as it would only be left there to rot. Well.........  I couldn't possibly let that happen! So, once again, here I am with a new/old cupboard in serious need of help.

Break out the sandpaper!


Poor old  thing... it needed a home


Look at the great crackling!


Ohhh.. and look at that heavy rust!


So here are some picture of the process over the course of 3 days.... 
First a major scrub-down, minor scraping and primer..didn't want to lose the authentic crackle

   
Some nice clean white paint
I saw this lovely French advertising graphic on the Graphics Fairy site (Thank you Karen) that needed to be on the front of the door, so I printed it out on 8 sheets of paper and traced it onto the door. This was no easy feat as the wood was very bumpy and crackled.







Here I am painstakingly painting in each and every letter and scroll. (I must be insane)
The #$@! lettering is done!
The hinges are all cleaned and ready to fit
Tons of scraping/sanding/adjusting to get the hinges to fit properly (still insane)

And....



wait for it..............





Tah dah!

I'm really very happy with the results. I sanded the edges and around the handles to give it some age, the door fits beautifully, the drawer slides nicely.. and it's ready to be put in place. (What place?!) Hmmm... that one could take longer than the whole restoration!

Hope you enjoyed the process of yet another rescue.

My name is Canace and I'm addicted to neat old cabinets...

Have a great week!

All best,
Canace

11 comments:

Carol Mae said...

Love what you did with this old Cabinet, awesome, great job. I just found your blog and became a follower, can't wait to see what you do next. Smiles, Carol Mae

Cindy said...

Wonderful redo that you've done on this one! The lettering is just exquisite though, you really outdid yourself on that.

Hugs XX
Barbara

Honey from the Bee said...

Love this cabinet!!! You must have a very steady hand... amazing that you could re-paint that image.

Janet Baskerville said...

Yes, you are insane and need an intervention but who am I to talk!!! :) You did a great job, good luck finding a spot in the studio...hehe.

Jo Archer said...

What a find! I love it when that happens and you've made a beautiful job of it.

Cherie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cherie said...

Oh My Oh My, WOW what a lucky cupboard that is! Your reno shows the cailbre of the artist you are, meticulous to the enth degree. Applause, Applause, totally beautiful, so happy for YOU xo.
(previous comment removed due to spelling errors ;)

Artsnark said...

brilliant transformation. The text is a nice touch

Jeanette Janson said...

This came out sooo good. I love the stencil on the front. These orphaned cabinets are finding YOU!
I have one that I am working on that I got out of the garage at an estate sale. Almost ready to take some pics of it.
See ya~ Jeanette
PS- We have the same disease.

UpAndAwayStudio said...

Oh my gosh that is seriously gorgeous and looks alot like the one my great grandmother had in her smokehouse.She would put all of her canned fruit in there.

Canace said...

Thanks so much everybody... It was a labor of love and I'm loving it in my studio.

Happy to hear about great grandma's smokehouse and canning! :o)