I hope you aren’t as impatient as I am! It makes me crazy that these paint projects take so long, by my dear sweet hubby insists on doing everything RIGHT (which is just one of the things that I adore about him!), and that means going slow, taking time to get everything prepared so that when you finally do get around to the actual painting part of the project, you know that it will turn out looking really great. We really are making progress, but I’m having to take baby steps because we just don’t have the time, energy, or money to do everything all at once. And so we remain kinda-sorta in the middle of an ongoing mess, but little by little, the job’s getting done!

Here is the cedar chest that is all sanded and ready to be painted . . . and the really ugly, really old, really cheap cabinet we have had for at least 25 years, maybe more. It really was kind of cute in the beginning, and I’ve used it for all kinds of things in different houses where we’ve lived. In one house it was a cabinet for dishes in the kitchen, in another house it was used as kind of a book case / cabinet for games and puzzles, and most recently it was used for kind of a catch-all because I didn’t know what else to do with it.

Once the cedar chest was painted with the first coat of ivory paint (I’ll be posting all of those pictures in another blog post since I just found them . . . . I forgot I took those pictures on my phone and couldn’t figure out why they weren’t on my camera. Finally found them!), hubby continued on with his favorite new toy, the paint sprayer, and tackled the cabinet. Of course, he removed the doors, drawer, and all of the hardware first. See what I mean? I probably would have just painted around everything, but nope! He does it the right way!

After the first coat of ivory paint was sprayed on, I did some “touch up” because the paint sprayer sometimes leaves some “thin” spots. Once I got started, of course, I just kept on going and did a second coat everywhere, including the inside and the shelves. Sometimes I’m a bit of a perfectionist, I guess. We make a good team. The paint we used was the same paint that is on the ceiling and all of the trim in our family room, and it is the same paint we used on the fireplace. I love the color! But on the cabinet and cedar chest it wasn’t as smooth as I wanted, and I was thinking that without a clear coat to protect it, we would soon have scratches and marks. So once it was completely painted (two or three coats of paint, I really can’t remember for sure!), I used a clear polyurethane on the whole cabinet, including the doors, drawer front, shelves, and all of the interior surfaces.

Now here’s where the “little by little” theory comes in really handy . . . I love the Pioneer Woman stuff from Walmart. But I can’t afford to just go out and buy all of the pieces I want all at once . . . so I am hopeful that it will still be around for a while because I’ve been gradually collecting a few things here and there when I have an extra $10 or so. One week I found the pretty pitcher on clearance for $9 and then another week I found the utensil holder for I think maybe $11. The girls got the butter dish for me last year for Christmas, one week I spent $10 and bought four kitchen towels, and a couple of weeks ago (we really did need more glasses because all of our other ones either broke or have various children’s scribbles on the plastic ones – one even has a “gash” across the side where someone put a hot pan next to it and melted the plastic so it looks like it was cut, but not all the way through, so we’ve still been using it) I found the four-pack of the Mason jar glasses with lids and straws for $9.95.

(It was challenging getting a good picture of the cabinet with the doors closed because of the reflection in the glass)

A month or so ago I bought two of the plates for a total of around $9 (I hope a couple more this week!), the red pitcher on the second shelf was a thrifted treasure from a few years ago, the red birdhouse is one I spray painted this summer, the apple picture is one I’ve had for lots of years, and the pretty little lamp was “shopped” from around our house and I just changed out the shade to coordinate with the other red stuff in this little setting. The old maroon chair next to the cabinet . . . well it really is old, but I still like it, and it isn’t worn out very much even though we’ve had it for . . . hmmmmm . . . probably almost 20 years. There actually was a foot stool that matched it once upon a time, but when the girls were little, they liked to lay on it and watch TV, then they would play with it, jump on it, rock it back and forth, and generally have a great time with it until the legs broke off. Oh well, I’d rather have little girls that beautiful furniture!

So, one thing at a time, little by little, I’m filling up my pretty new painted cabinet. It all does take time, but I’m practicing my focusing skills so that I am celebrating the little accomplishments, every step along the way as we move towards our goal of fixing up our old house. Be watching for the pictures of the painted cedar chest, now that I found them. You will see the transformation from the battered up on chest that was a gift to me on my high school graduation from my mother, to the lovely little piece of furniture that still holds some sentimental value for me even if it isn’t  particularly expensive or extravagant.

Hope you are finding some inspiration in our journey as we fix up not only our old house, but as we bring new life to some really old pieces of furniture. Would love to see what you are working on!

PS the actual cost of this project was around $20 when you include the can of ivory paint and the clear coat polyurethane, which of course this project did not use up all of that paint and clear coat, and a new paint brush because I’m kind of messy when I paint. The spray painter was purchased to do the walls and ceiling in the family room, and will be used for lots of other stuff this autumn as we keep working on fixing up our old house.