Dining Room Corner Cabinets

Last fall I was addicted to Craigslist.  I would check it every night praying that someone out there would be getting rid of something that I could transform into something amazing!  Well, someone did!  I found these corner cabinets!!!  Aren't they beauties?

Oh wait.  That's an "after" picture.

This is what they looked like "before."

I asked Jason if we could buy them, thinking he would say, "I don't think so, dear!"  To my surprise, he said, "They're great!  E-mail the guy!"  We contacted the man and Jason went to pick them up.  Apparently they had been trying to sell them for awhile at their garage sale and no one bought them.

They were in great condition but just needed a little paint and some new hardware.

We removed the doors, glass, and hardware and sanded everything down.

We filled the holes where the old hardware was since we knew we wanted to get new hardware.  Then we primed the cabinets, doors, and shelves.

Next, we painted them.  It took forever.  These corner cabinets, the doors, and shelves required five coats of paint.  The paint we used was quite thick.  To prevent it from getting too thick and streaky, we did thin coats of paint.  This is the paint we used.  It rocks.

Our dining room was again a disaster during the painting.

We managed to finish painting the base of the cabinets right before Christmas but had to quit on the doors.  So this is what they looked like for about two months around December and January.

I was right back at it again in February, however, and finally finished painting the doors.  Hooray!

We had a hard time finding pulls for these cabinets.  Everything we tried was too large for the small drawers.  We checked out the hardware from Restoration Hardware and found these smaller pulls, which were the perfect size.  They are polished nickel 3" pulls from the Gilmore collection.  The only problem we had during the installation was the fact that two of the screws broke in half and got lodged in the drawer.  Poor Jason was so frustrated!  We don't know what caused them to break because he pre-drilled holes into the drawers before screwing them in.  The screws for the other pull went in without any problems!  We had a tough time getting the screws out of the drawer. We returned the pull and what was left of the screws to Restoration Hardware.  They gave us a new one, no questions asked.

The knobs also came from Restoration Hardware.  They are 1" knobs from the Gilmore collection.

We found our hinges at the Rockler store.

The glass clips came from a local hardware store.

I knew that I wanted to line the backs of the cabinets with something to make my dishes stand out a little.  The white on white was a little boring.

We have a store close to our house that sells wallpaper and other supplies.  They have the prettiest display windows showcasing their wallpaper.

Oliver and I went in the other day and found some paper they had in stock.  I found a roll of paper that I liked and they were willing to sell it to me for $20.  If I would have ordered some it would have cost me over $60 and I would have had to wait a couple of weeks. 

I measured the backs of the cabinets and cut away.

Here is what one section looked like with the paper.  I love it!  The dishes stand out, but the paper isn't too busy or obnoxious.

The last step was to add the glass back into the cabinets.

These corner cabinets turned out to be quite the project.  However, when I see the before and after pictures, I think the work we went through was worth it.  I love the extra storage and think that they look original to our Cape Cod house, almost as if they're built in.  Have you ever found something on Craigslist and transformed it into something pretty fantastic?  Please share!

Have a great day, friends!



I'm linking this up to Between Naps on the Porch, Home Stores A to Z, A Beach Cottage, Tatertots and Jello , Simple Home Life, Just a Girl, Thrifty Decor Chick and Miss Mustard Seed.  All are such lovely blogs!  Please check them out!

Sweet Silhouettes

When I was little my Mom and Grandma Esther took my sister Gretel and I to get our silhouettes done at a department store.  I distinctly remember having to sit so very still as the lady traced our shadows.  She did a wonderful job as I'm sure we were pretty wiggly!  My Mom still has them hanging in her dining room to this day in the same black oval frame.  I have always thought they were so pretty and seemed old fashioned to me.  When I saw that silhouettes were "coming back," I was thrilled and wanted to make some of my boys for myself.  While there are many easy ways of doing them, I found this way to be the easiest for me.  I found this idea from a website called little momma & co.  I adore this blog!  Like me, Emily lives with her husband and two boys.  About a month ago, she posted about an easy DIY silhouette project.  I thought, "I can do that!  I want to do that!"  You can see her awesome tutorial here.

Here is what I did.  First, I took pictures of my boys' profiles.  This was difficult.  They don't stand still for long.

Can you tell that Henry isn't too happy about having his picture taken?  This little boy just wanted to ride his bike.

Next, I loaded my pictures onto my computer and printed them out on card stock.  The size I chose to print them out in was 8x10.  I then carefully cut around their sweet little heads. 

I decided to put my silhouettes on plain canvases I purchased at Michaels.  The size of the canvases were 8x10 as well.  I had to trim a little extra off of the bottom of Henry's silhouette so that it would fit on the canvas.

I then took their pictures outside and gave them two coats of black paint.  Easy as pie.

This is the paint I used.  I also purchased it at Michaels for a few dollars.

After the paint dried, I glued the silhouettes onto the canvases.  That's it!  Super fun, cheap, and easy!

I too, hung mine in the dining room.  Just like Mom.

Thanks for the inspiration, Emily!  I love my silhouettes!

I'll be posting about the corner cabinets yet this weekend but until then, have a great weekend, friends!

Summer Is Calling

This week has been busy.  We've spent it with family and it has been wonderful.  We've gone to parks, had cook-outs, picnics, been to the pool, fireworks by the lake, and enjoyed s'mores by bonfires.  My posts have been sparse this week and will probably continue to be that way.  Sorry!  In the meantime, I'll leave you with some cute pictures.

This is my nephew.

He is my Godson and I adore him.

Cousins.  Can you tell that they love one another?



This picture is Oliver's "I'm two and I can do everything all by myself" face.  Oh boy.

Goof.Ball.

I am excited to post about our corner cabinets, (which are finally DONE!) a silhouette project I completed, and some new favorite recipes soon.  Hopefully I'll have them up by this weekend, so stay tuned.  Today is supposed to be hot, hazy, and humid.  We're headed to the beach and the lakefront to hopefully stay cool.

Have a great day, friends!