Farmhouse Cabinets

It's no secret: I love farmhouse cabinets. I have a whole pinterest board dedicated to gloriously chippy, rustic wooden farmhouse goodness. Recently, I was able to acquire several (in less than glorious finishes) for very reasonable prices. In other words, cheap. Cheap, because obviously, they need some lovin'. But they've got good bones! They are made like furniture is rarely made anymore. Thick, solid wood throughout. I thought it would be fun to do a post showing the "before's" and my plan for each one. I'll start with the biggest.

This one is huge! It's about 7' tall and 6' wide. it's all tongue and groove beadboard with a lovely old green paint. I picked it up really reasonably and there's *almost* always a catch to a good price. The catch with this one is, it was used in a factory and the inside is V.E.R.Y greasy. I'm still working on this one so to be determined how well it turns out.

Not much of the green paint is visible under the layers of grime but the inside shows it better. When I scrubbed the outside, the paint was so loose that most of it scrubbed off. I'm still undecided what I'm going to do on the outside. I thought I knew but when I started working on it, I became undecided. To borrow a line from Victoria Elizabeth Barnes. (if you're not reading her blog, you should be! She's a riot!) "I wandered off to examine bark in the forest of indecision." I LOVE that line! Maybe because I can relate. It's such a big project that I want to get it right the first time. So, I waffle.....

Next up is a cabinet that I plan to use for a bathroom vanity when we get around to remodeling the upstairs bathroom. I have been watching for something with the right lines and dimensions for a long time and one Sunday I spotted this one on a Facebook group. It had been listed for a few hours and someone had beat me to it. *insert very sad face here* It was perfect and I couldn't believe it couldn't be mine. I messaged the lady that sold it to see if she knew if the person who bought it was going to resell it or keep for themselves. She told me the guy was going to refinish it and make it an island for his kitchen. So, I gave up and figured I'd need to keep looking. The following Sunday after lunch, I was cruising Craigslist and gasped out loud. It was a listing for my cabinet! Long story shorter, the guy decided he didn't have time to refinish it and was just getting his money out of it. He had tacked on $15 for his gas to go get it but since he was closer to me than it originally was, I felt like it was a win all around. I messaged him right away and asked him if he could hold it for me until Monday (since we don't do business on the Lord's Day) and he agreed! I felt like this cabinet was meant to be mine. A lot of people will not do holds but I was so happy he did and the cabinet is now mine and has joined the line of cabinets awaiting a new life. :)

I know it doesn't look like much but I have high hopes for it. The sink will go in the left side and the potato bin will be a laundry chute. I'll just cut the bottom out and where this goes upstairs lines up with the laundry room so the boys can just toss their clothes into the bin and viola! They will end up in the laundry room. That's the plan, anyway. ;)

The 3rd 'before' cabinet I'm showing is one I had encouraged my mom to buy at an auction for a specific use in her house but after she got it home, she decided it was too much work and decided to resell it. I felt obligated to buy it from her. I have some ideas to make it awesome but it remains to be seen if my vision is feasible or not.

And my last cabinet is one I don't have a 'before' picture for, just the 'after'. (Albeit, not a very good one.) This cabinet is in my guest room which I also use for sewing and storage. I was looking for something kind of shallow and about 4' wide and with blind doors. I spied this one at an antique shop one day but the price was out of my range. I was going to leave without asking for a better price since it was significantly higher than I wanted to pay but something told me just before I left to ask the proprietress if she was firm on her price. I asked her and indicated which cabinet I was talking about. She walked over to it, studied it for a minute then named a price that was HALF of what was on the tag. Wha?! For that price, I couldn't turn it down. I had originally planned to use it the way it was but when I got it home, I decided the stain (paint?) was much too reddish to suit me so I stripped it and stained it with a brown stain. It's 2 different woods (not uncommon for old cabinets) so I used 2 different stains to try and minimize the different wood tones. It fits perfectly in the spot I bought it for and holds a TON of stuff.

It was cloudy the day I took this picture so I will include a better one when I do this room reveal. This was one of the biggest things I was waiting on before showing my whole guest room so I only have a few small things and then it's ready to show you. I can't wait! :)

And I can't end this post of farmhouse cabinets without showing you one my friend, Wendy, scored at the local thrift store last week. I think I squealed a little when she texted me this picture and said it was at the thrift store. Every time I look there, it's junk! She has great plans for this sweet little cabinet and I can't wait to see it made over. She does great work (and SHOULD have a blog to show the world her awesomeness) so I know it will be just the cutest! She gave me permission to share these pictures with you and maybe she'll let me share the 'after' when she gets it finished. ;)

Look at that beadboard front! And that hardware! Swoon! This will be so cute painted!

Check back to see what becomes of these farmhouse diamonds in the rough. 

From the farmhouse,