My New Pride and Joy

My latest project is now completed after sitting in the garage for over nine months.  I hope you like it as much as I do!

This is what it looked like in its previous state.

I purchased this from a barn sale I found on Craig's List. This guy had a huge barn stocked full of antiques, but it was the kind of thing where you had to dig through piles and piles of stuff.  Of course I didn't have to dig far to see this beauty, which he sold to me for a mere $40.  I still don't know why it was so cheap as there is really nothing wrong with it structurally.  The only issue with it was the little piece missing from the bottom left door and a small piece of the decorative moulding on the inside of the glass door was coming off, which didn't matter because I wanted to remove that anyway (insert OMG!!! here).  Other than that it was in great shape.  Just a little moldy.  Keeping it in the garage for so long didn't help that either.

When it was finally time to clean her up, Mr. Bliss and I used some Murphy's Oil soap to gently clean the surface.  I thought long and hard before deciding to paint it.  It's solid mahogany and has some beautiful inlay work, not something you typically want to paint over.  But, for my purposes and where I was choosing to put it, painting was the only logical choice.

This picture shows how the piece missing is hardly even noticable now.  I kept the original hardware on these doors.

But switched out the knob for this glass one I got at a yard sale.  The tassel is from Tuesday Morning.

I chose to remove the inside door moulding because I wanted to be able to better see the inside.

I applied some toile fabric that my friend Stacy gave me using fabric adhesive and added the trim with a hot glue gun.   The hardest part was measuring and finding the best piece of fabric to display.

It's the same on top and bottom.

Here it is with the door closed.

A better look at the detail.

This picture shows the glazing technique I used.

We purposely did not use a primer so as to better show the aging.  We used a latex paint and gave it two solid coats with a third only in certain places.  I then sanded in certain places and of course glazed using a stain to bring out the detail and then removing the excess with a damp rag.

This is what it looks like in my sitting room off of the master bedroom.  Those plates need to be rehung, but that's another project that hopefully won't take nine months!  Speaking of nine months, baby is doing great and I'm sixteen weeks today, so starting my fifth month already!

Thanks for stopping by.  I'm joining these great parties today.

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Today's Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality
Garage Salen' Party at Debbie Doos

Be sure to stop by these amazing parties  hosted by some amazing ladies to see some other great thrifty treasures and transformations!