Our New Old Bathroom Cabinet

I have been busy.  To remind you what we started out with, here’s a before picture.  Just your standard builder grade cabinet–nothing special.  But it was in good shape, and it fits the space in our bathroom. Plus, we were trying to keep our whole bathroom renovation under $300, so a new cabinet was not in the budget.

I kept going back and forth as to whether I wanted to paint the cabinet or not.  Once the beadboard was up, having a little oak in there for contrast didn’t bother me as much as it did before the beadboard was installed.  

In the end, I did decide to paint it, but I knew it would still look like a builder grade cabinet if all I did was paint. So it got something pretty added to it.

The side of the cabinet was really beat up, so something needed to be done with that also. Because it was just particle board on the side, I couldn’t just sand, prime it, and paint it. The flaws would have continued to show.

I didn’t take a picture of it, but I covered the side with beadboard wallpaper. The wallpaper is thick enough that it hides all the dings and dents, plus it looks realistic enough to be right next to the real beadboard. 

Then the process of making it look beautiful started.  I primed it, sanded it, painted it, glazed it, sanded it again, and then painted it again.  I wanted it to look like an antique cabinet, but I didn’t want it to look too distressed, because everything else in the bathroom looks fresh and new.

I used the same hardware that was on the cabinet before for a couple of reason. One, I just bought them a couple years ago. They’re really heavy and were kind of expensive, so I didn’t want to replace them. And two, I really like the juxtaposition of the modern brushed nickel with the antiqued finish.

Then we added some legs. I thought about using finials and modifying them to use as legs like others have done, but I decided I liked the look of the Queen Anne legs better with this particular cabinet.

So are you ready to see the whole thing?  No?

Oh com’on!!! I really want to show you!!!!

Too bad… my blog… I can do as I want, and I’m going to show you!

Here you can see how it looks with the beadboard.  We’re going to change the faucet, but haven’t found one that we like yet. I want one with a goose neck and lever handles, but that combination is proving to be a bit more money than we want to put in this bathroom.

This is how it looks from the hallway. I’m really happy with way it looks when we walk by the bathroom. Our bedroom is directly across the hall, so this is one of the first views I see every day.

In this view, you can really see all the details…the legs, the applique, the beadboard, the molding, the paint finish, and how the brushed nickel hardware and toilet paper holder look with it. Now you can see the beadboard wallpaper that I put on the side, which you didn’t get to see before. I antiqued the wallpaper similar to the front, except I didn’t sand it. I think it really helped to give the cabinet the look of furniture that I wanted, although the camera makes it the side look darker than it actually is.   

Well there you have it!  That’s how I transformed a builder grade oak cabinet into an antique piece of furniture. 

Next I’ll be showing you what we’ve done to our medicine cabinet! 

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