Here is the “Not-So-Much” before. I’m not going to tell you how much I paid for it, because it should have been about $25. Those kind of bargains are hard to come by around here. Add my incredible impatience {after all, I had an empty foyer with this huge mirror hanging there over nothing!} and you get I-overpaid-for-it-even-after-talking-the-junky-furniture-place-down-by-$20. But it’s okay, because as my friend Mari always says, “Do you like it/love it? Did you pay more than you could afford to pay for it? No? Then, it’s okay!” I’d like to show you the piece of furniture that was there before, but I only have 2010 pics on my computer at the moment and if I take the time to find an older picture this post will be at least another day later!! {BTW, it got a makeover too, so I’ll show you that in another post}
See how it is dwarfed by the huge metal mirror? {And notice how my husband had already attacked it with sandpaper, terrified of painting that slick surface? I assured him that people in blog land do it all the time!}
So, here’s what we {he} did: He built a new base for it to make it about 5-6 inches taller. Rather than explain the process I’ll just add a couple of pictures {hardest part was the angles, thank goodness for compound miter saw!}
Next was a coat of primer, 2 coats of black satin paint & a couple of coats of satin polyurethane. {Note: He used a too big, too coarse brush, cuz that was what he had, so neither of us are completely satisfied with the finish, but it works just fine. Now that I have been bitten by the re-purposing bug we will definitely spray prime & paint such surfaces in the future. Should have listened to Centsational Girl! I think we’ll be in the market to purchase a decent sprayer in the pretty near future – to avoid cans whenever possible}
My favorite part is the doors. Hubby asked me if I wanted him to spray paint the door pulls…NO - I love the natural patina on the old brass! There were plumb/level/hinge issues with the doors so they sat unattached in my living room for about a week…
…aren’t they beautiful? I got the notion I would love to have a collage of interesting cabinet doors with pretty hardware hanging somewhere in my home…**sigh**…
Here’s the finished product, decked out for fall {sorry, not great pictures}. Pay no attention to the green walls {that clash with the green urn}. By mid November the walls in my entry, living room, kitchen & hallway will be painted “Coir” from the Eddie Bauer Home Lakeside Cottage collection {Valspar Signature Colors}…just thinking about it relaxes me :)
See, no longer dwarfed by the mirror!AND…the closeup {I love that it provides storage, too}!
