If you’re not already following Karen’s blog–you’re missing out!
I saw a new post notice in my email, and opened it right away. “W-oah—W-o-w! Omg! What a g-r-e-a-t idea!”
I have one of those, and I never thought of that! Ohh–I am sooo all over this! —Then I learned I was to be a participant in the One Month to Win It contest—and my new project took a little turn!
Here’s her Before
and fabulous After.
Missing drawers got her thinking about building a box insert. Ingenius! She tells me that since these pictures, she’s added trim to its rough front edges. Pictures please, Karen!
You can see that her lingerie chest is a finer piece of furniture than the one I had to work with. Really nice contoured and bow-fronted drawers, and side panels!
I loved her idea, but thought it would look even cooler with a door–! There’s my project!
I began demo the day after Christmas.
–Originally, I wanted to leave 2 drawers, splitting the cabinet in half, but I didn’t like the balance, and took out one more–Perfect! Then I could cut out the drawer dividers.
–Next, to re-fit the interior walls (below, in the upper two pictures), running them all the way down through the remaining drawer section. And, finally, the new bottom shelf is cut~routered~and installed. It will also act as a door “stop”
–I’ve always loved how really old cabinets have split panels making up the back board, so I ripped some boards, and beveled the edges to create the look!
The easy part–done. Now, the doors.
I struggled over this for a bit. Because–I was liking the cabinet in its new form. But I’m building this for the contest now, and I have to use an image from the Graphics Fairy. Hmmm.
I was doing a lot of out loud talking to myself at this point.
“Where do I put the image—on the backboard? The [new] bottom shelf? The top?” I knew you wouldn’t really see the image after you put some stuff in it.
“Well–I guess I’m back to the door. But then–which way does the door swing?” And you know how this ended.
–After cutting a couple of boards for the doors, I decided they would look really cool if they were curved to match the curved rails. O-kay–way t’ make more work for yourself.
—With the doors side by side, I nailed a rail (the former drawer rails) to each end of the doors. I used them as a guide/template to run the wood through the table saw with the blade tipped, cutting off just enough wood to begin creating the curve. The rest was all sanding and shaping with a belt sander. -The interior side of the doors remain flat.
—Below, the doors propped in place.
Next, the Ca-RA-zy part of the story!
I definitely want to talk to some of you about transferring images!
Thank you so much Catherine for the great shout out! I love the steps you show in building yours as well. Glad to know I am not the only “talk to myself out loud” blogger out there!
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Congrats on your win this week at OMTWI! Look forward to what you have next week! : )
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Thanks Ashley—you’re such an incredible crafter, I’m sure to be out-done!
Can’t wait to see what you did with the DecoArt paint!
Catherine
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Clearly I missed this post while I was out West. It turned out beautifully. I do wonder though if you have to worry about the doors warping? Did you put some kind of brace on the back? And how thick is your wood? I know lots of questions but I love this idea and would have never thought to do this. Great job.
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