Thrifted TV Cabinet to Nursery Armoire :: {Before & After}

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You probably don't know this, but my (well, OUR) greatest crafting achievement is due in less than a month!

From what they tell us, 'it' is actually a 'she'! I don't know if Mr. S and I could be any more excited. Oh. Man. ALL THE EXCITEMENT. The best reason in the world to get all sick and swollen and eat your weight in Sonic ice. Mmmm. Sonic ice. :)

Do you know what ELSE is exciting about this??

GETTINGTODOTHENURSERYOFCOURSE!

I will definitely be updating you guys with current (ish) nursery pictures as I finish things. Right now it is in massive amounts of disarray...so...no pictures of it for right now... ;)

*awkwardtransitionintothepointofthispost*

So this was the very first project I did for the nursery, and I actually started it back in...March? Yes, March. Goodness. I'm behind. ANYWAY. Mr. S and I were out one day at a used furniture store and we came across this bad boy. It was a old Broyhill TV cabinet and I fell in love with the front detail...lattice...stuff.

I loved that it had drawers inside, since the closets in our house are few and far between and also tiny. We talked the owner into giving it to us for half off due to some extensive cosmetic damage (pictures below) and scored it for less than $30! Yay!

(I would also like to take this time to give credit to my amazing husband, who, despite my loud and most likely whiny and obnoxious protests that went something like... 'NOOO IT WONT FIT IN YOUR CAR LET'S JUST PAY THEM TO DELIVER IT NOOO NOOO WHAT IF WE GET PULLED OVER WHAT IF IT FALLS OUT WHAT IF THE WORLD ENDS NOOO.' managed to fit this monstrosity into his ever so adorable VW Rabbit hatchback.)

(Isn't he handsome? Ahh. :) He told me I needed to trust him, especially after the fact he fit our washing machine and then our dryer in that hatchback also. I am such a pessimist haha)

Like I was saying, this piece was fairly beat up...not just scratches, I'm talking massive chunks of veneer missing and deep gouges and veneer peeling off. To name a few. And the back was missing. I don't know what this poor dear was in its previous life, but I'm wondering if it didn't just get thrown down some stairs for kicks and giggles. It needed some serious loving.

The bottom leg on the left side was the worst...it had a good inch chunk taken out, on top of the veneer being warped beyond reason.

 

The other leg was pretty jacked up also.

Andddd there were these lovely veneer chunks missing all over the place. The clamps were there in an attempt to at least flatten out the veneer somewhat.

There were deep scuffs like these E'ERWHERE. 

What does one do when their veneer is so messed up? BONDO BABY. Bondo is actually used as body filler for cars, but it works MAGICALLY for these type of projects. I found mine at Lowe's. 

Again, my amazing husband stepped in here and protected our unborn child from noxious fumes by doing all the harsh chemical applications for me..because...seriously folks, this stuff is ranky. Do  NOT do this inside, or any other poorly ventilated space, kay? Kay. I care about your brain cells. :) I would like to say here that I don't 'delegate' tasks involving my projects very well, and while Mr. S was working on this part I stood with my face pressed up against the glass door shouting helpful tips like 'MAYBE A LITTLE MORE OVER THERE? NO. OTHER OVER THERE. ITS UNEVEN' and gesturing wildly. I'm sure he loved it.

So after the Bondo we did some fun sanding! Sanding the front part was a bit of a pain, but it worked out. I also got some heavy duty wood glue and glued/clamped the pulled up veneer piece the best I could.

After sanding came my most favorite part...PAINTING. I love painting because that is when I finally start to see my 'vision' for these projects start to solidify. It gives me such grand warm fuzzies. What was awesome about this is the paint was a jar of 'Oops Paint' from Lowes...I picked up the whole gallon for $5! What was ALSO awesome about this paint color, was that Lowe's had the exact same shade in spray paint, which I used for the front panels, because getting in between all of those decorative moldings was taking FO EVAH.
                                                               

SHEEN SHEEN. Yay!

After the paint dried (which only took about...oh, 45 seconds thanks to the 98 degree weather in southern Georgia haha!) I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with the front. I knew I didn't want to leave it bare...that was way too much unbroken lettuce green, even for my tastes. SO then came my favorite part of every project...JORDAN HAS TO DECIDE ON A PATTERN.

Oh patterns. Why art thou so great in number and diversity?

I went to my most totes fave store, Joann's, and wandered around for close to an hour and eventually left with an armful of sample fabric and some rad scrapbook paper. And because I like to be able to actually lay my eyeballs on things, I did each little quarter panel with the four choices I narrowed it down to. (which was a Herculean feat in and of itself)

Option #1...This was the first one. I *loved* this fabric so so so so so so much, and honestly almost went with it.

Option #2 was this awesome scrapbook paper I found, which I also really really really liked. GAH DECISIONS ARE SO HARD.

Option #3...of course I had to at least try a chevron...

And Option #4. I think the brightness sold me on this last one. I knew I wanted a feminine nursery that wasn't PINK PINK PINK EVERYWHERE PINK COTTON CANDY PINK DIE FROM THE PINK but I didn't mind having some interspersed here and there. I also like that the pink in this was more of a coral color.

 You guys want to see my mad photo shop skillz? Yeah. So I did this bad boy up in Microsoft Paint in an attempt to see what the finished project would looked like. Hahahahaha. Sooo fantastic.

After I had decided on the fabric, I told myself I'd just unscrew the molding and lay a whole piece of the fabric down under it and screw the molding back on top. Easy, right? NO DICE. I couldn't for the life of me get that molding off. Some witchcraft must have been involved or something, because that stuff was not going ANYWHERE. So I got to do it the second way...cutting up tiny rectangles and attaching them individually. Yay for the fun way!  

It actually was not as bad as I make it sound. I measured and cut up 48 little fabric pieces and drowned them in mod podge, carefully placed them in their own little individual hole and carefully squeegeed them in. And let dry. GETTING SO CLOSE.

I also made a back piece for the inside, which was covered with the same fabric. See how much happier it is when you open it now? :D

Then I lined the inside of the drawers with pretty contact paper...which I can't for the life of me remember where I got it. I've used this stuff so many different places in our house! (Sorry about the quality of this picture...it was a la Jordan's cellphone because she forgot she hadn't taken one yet. And all of the drawer bottoms have been since filled with baby things, which are ever so classily pushed to the side here ;))

I didn't like the original clunky hardware that had come on the bottom drawer at ALL, so I filled in the holes with wood putty and replaced the single pull with two smaller (and cuter!!) ones.

OH and I thought I would show you guys what that leg looked like before and after the bondo, sanding and paint! Spiffy, right? Its not perfect but I was pleased with how it turned out for our first time using it.

            

ANNNDD FINISHED. And in the baby's room filled and covered with baby things I need to sort...sometime veryvery soon! I really like this piece, I think it adds such a fun element to our daughter's room! I can't wait to show you guys the rest of the nursery!

Cost Breakdown:
Armoire = $30
Paint = $5

Fabric = $10 (Joann's coupon, baby!)

Bondo = $5 (we have loads leftover from the can)
Wood putty & glue = $0 (already on hand)'

Total = ~$50

As always, thank you for reading!