16/11/2022
I met Amy my sophomore year of college. One of the warmest, funniest and kindest people you will ever meet. Simply put, she’s just so dang fun to be around! Flash forward nearly 20 years and Amy reached out to me asking if I’d be willing to refinish a few family pieces she owned. I told her I’d love to but that I couldn’t start on anything until 2022.
She waited patiently (over a year you guys!) and we decided to start with this antique cabinet her parents gave her. Her Dad had refinished it years ago for her Mom and as time went on it was passed down to Amy who moved the cabinet with her through every stage of life.
This piece has great bones, solid hardwoods and was the perfect candidate for a “make-under”. We removed the decorative pieces on the front that reminded her of jellyfish and completely removed the chipping veneer from the skirt. We decided to take the dated top portion off, leaving the body with a clean and crisp outline.
The old hardware was removed, holes were filled with dowels and bondo and new brass hardware (from Rejuvenation) was added giving the cabinet an upscale feel.
The legs were stripped down to bare wood, sanded and stained in a combination of MinWax Early American and Golden Oak.
The body was patched, grain filled, sanded, primed and painted in General Finishes Lamp Black.
The interior and wood shelves were treated with Restore-a-finish in Dark Walnut and polished with Howard’s Feed-N-Wax.
The original fretwork was in good shape but wasn’t exactly Amy’s style so I did something new and found a company (Terrene, Inc.) to laser cut custom fretwork for us. I am so happy with how this turned out, it’s my favorite part of this project!
The entire piece was sealed in a 50/50 mix of GF Satin and GF Flat High Performance Top Coat.
Puck lights were added to the interior lighting up the space which will be repurposed as a bar.
And that’s it! It’s done! If you’ve been here since I started this thank you for sticking around (speaking of sticking around, swipe through these pics to see a photo of me and Amy in college! 😆) I may not finish pieces very fast but I promise they’re always worth the wait! 💫❤️
