My father's father made this piece from mahogany sometime between my birth and age five. It sat in my father's house for as long as I can remember. When we brought this home, he had asked me if I wanted it and I said yes after I saw vision for what I wanted it to look like and where I wanted it to be. Or so I thought. I love how it turned out in the end and it is the most commented and loved on piece of furniture I own.
When it first came to me it looked like a pre- sanded version of this:
This is pretty much how it sat in my father's house for years. No stain, no hardware, and much wear and tear. I even found on the inside door where we had colored on it with markers as kids. I refused to paint over it. I thought I wanted to stain the cabinet a dark color at first. I am trying to get away from so much painted furniture and go more with the natural wood look. I decided to stain it a dark walnut.... huge mess. It was black and the red came through making it a dark cherry color. I hate cherry.... no offense to those of you who love it. I do not. I did not keep the picture of this, unfortunately. But believe me when I say it was not pretty.
At this point, I knew I had to paint it. I hate to paint and I especially hate to paint furniture. I am notorious for not taking my time on a project and it ending up looking as such. I had no choice here... this was going to be beautiful and it was going in my home. So I did what anyone does after a failed attempt at a home project... Pinterest. I found this dresser and loved the color. I scrolled through several blogs looking for what paint was used here until I found it.
I can't for the life of me remember the original color name here, but it doesn't matter. I set out to Lowes in search of this color that I fell in love with and walked up to the paint counter asking for it only for them to tell me they no longer carried it....insert heartbreak.... then just as fate would have it, another kind man walked up and asked what I was looking for and told me that they had it and it had just been renamed. Praise Him!
The color is Treeline by Valspar. I hope that if you ever want to use it, this is still the name. I bought it in flat and started painting immediately. The paint was sticking to the stain that was never going to dry but it worked out. I applied 3 coats of the paint to the cabinet and I will say that it took days to dry and it still didn't look like the same color to me. But now I see it. The gold hardware and lighting make it look slightly different in the above picture. I let the paint dry for days and then I used a clear furniture wax to seal it and again, let it dry for days. It still wasn't cured when I moved it in here but I was tired of waiting. No surprise there. I am always tired of waiting.
I looked for awhile and drove to 3 different Hobby Lobbies in 3 cities to find the hardware. I knew I wanted the hardware to be big and make a statement with the simple lines and structure of the cabinet. They were very difficult to get on and now half of them are half way falling off... but it looks pretty.
In total it cost me about $40 to rehab this cabinet. After a year of sitting beautifully in my home holding all my linens, I love it dearly. I am happy with the finished product. I love the rich green and the finish that the wax gave it. I hope this inspires you to take something that you don't love and make it into something you do. It can be done. I almost told my father "no" to this cabinet... I am so glad I changed my mind. It's happy here with me.