Before and After - Dining Room Cabinet
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 12:26PM Today's before and after is one of my most difficult yet rewarding projects to date. I have been working on it for a few weeks and am forever grateful to my husband (and our friend, Hunter!) for helping me all weekend or I never would have been able to complete it. I bought this cabinet back in June from a wonderful store in my hometown of Burlington, NC. One of my readers, Melissa, asked for my favorite places to shop in my hometown and The Gingham Daisy is by far my new favorite place to go! The owners were so sweet and they have great stuff! I can't wait to go home again so I can stop by! They gave me a great deal on this cabinet and I also scored an amazing light fixture for Riley's bedroom that I will share with y'all soon. Below is a before picture of the base of the cabinet that I showed you last week.
There are actually two top cabinets that sit on top of the base.
Each cabinet had 6 glass panels with images of Greek gods inserted behind the frames.
I was immediately intrigued by the cabinet and admired the thoughtfulness someone had obviously put into building it. That being said, I am not really into Greek gods as decor, so I knew I would make some changes to the cabinet. When I bought it, I had no idea what I would do with it but I knew it had too much potential to let it go. My husband hauled the cabinet home for me and it sat in our dining room for the past 3 months.
About two weeks ago inspiration struck and I got to work. Because our dining room doesn't get a lot of natural light I wanted to use mirrors to brighten the room. I had seen cabinets like this one by Oly and decided to try to recreate this look.
This is what the cabinet looks like now!
I painted the cabinet white and had mirror cut to size at Lowes. I used liquid nails to attach the mirrors over the glass panels and then my husband cut molding to make the decorative pattern on top of the mirror. The molding is attached with super glue.
The cabinet has great hardware
and unbelievable storage.
It even has lined drawers for silver. If only I had some silver :)
One of the cabinets folds down like a secretary. I used some leftover Imperial Trellis wallpaper to line the back of the cabinet and turned it into a bar.
I am so happy with the end result but it was a LOT of work!
Let me know what you think!
*Want more before and afters? Check out Design Refuge's September challenge!
Reader Comments (63)
i love a great before and after and this one takes the cake. it's beautiful!
Unbelievable. It is truly gorgeous!
One of the most fabulous restore/restyle projects I've ever seen. Makes me want to break out the paint sprayer and get to work on some vintage finds I have around my house.
Unfreaking believable! I never, in a million years, would have come up with that design on my own. Absolutely gorgeous!! What a blessing and incredible gift you have!
I'm here via Tip Junkie. I don't usually comment when I come via another site, but HOLY WOW! That is gorgeous. You should be very proud of your hard work, what a stunning piece!
W.O.W!!! That is seriously impressive. Amazing what the guys at Lowes, some super glue, and a handy husband can do for a project. Love it! I generally don't like tall storage, but this one is definitely an exception.
AMAZING!!!! NICE JOB! Moving to NC myself, will check out that shop!
You had me at Imperial Trellis bar. This whole thing is amazing! I'm totally jealous.
Wow. I love it. You did a great job.
happened upon this post via pinterest and i am OBsessed. i want you to do this for my dining room, but i can only fit about 1/2 of the width of this cabinet on the open wall, so i'll take the side w/ the bar :)
Really nice!
I absolutely adore your dining room!!! Its everything I want in a space like that. May I ask where you got your table and chairs?? Everything looks amazing together.
Hi Brittany! The table and chairs are both from Pottery Barn (several years back). We have recently moved and I am thinking about selling mine so send me an email if you are interested in them!
Thanks,
Rachel