The Cake Pan Cabinet Reveal

The cake pan cabinet is just about finished, with the exception of door handles, which are proving a challenge to attach (they're not standard handles).  You'll have to imagine a plain, enamel white paint job and a huge grease stain...and then age it by 35 years (yep, that's the age of this piece); I did have a picture, but lost it when I closed my old Facebook page in favor of a blog setup.

This cabinet looks like an old farm piece, and I love the way it came out!  

So here goes my first refinishing job, which was meant to be shabby chic.  I deliberately left spots of paint in the door grooves and corners where they were stained over because I wanted a bit of a homey, reclaimed look to it.  I don't like perfection on such things because perfection doesn't add character, but a little bit of something that looks like a "mistake" does.  I also did that because I knew I was going to give the basic box a milk paint treatment, so the "mistakes" actually blend.  There are also nail holes and a few deep gouges in the wood that you cannot get the "white" out of it, so this treatment of a see through, distressed box and "spots" also adds visual interest to the box. 

The top drawers were actual drawers, but I decided I wanted to reclaim that room as I had plans for inside the box.  The drawers were removed and the drawer fronts were salvaged and then "married" to the doors below, and the supporting center frame was split to become part of a larger door.  The drawer fronts wouldn't allow the door to open, so we had to cut about an inch out on the hinge sides at the very top of the cabinet to allow room for the door to swing open.

The hinges, which were painted white, were wire brushed clean and then sprayed gold; I think the original color was an aged brass.  They look much better and I'm glad I didn't end up replacing them (I bought new hinges, but they wouldn't fit so they were returned).

The side "wings" were an addition; I wanted a place to hang kitchen towels, so the idea of using rolling pins made perfect sense to me since it was a cake pan cabinet, and I was going with an overall baking theme.  It's super cute!

Here's the inside of the cabinet, and and you can see, the dividers are the right height (they don't need to go all the way to the top) to hold nested sets of cake pans in place with a little bit of room to play.  The inside height of the box is 27.5" which may sound like a ton of room, I have cooling racks that are 20" long, and cake pans as long as 18" at this point, so the room will be used!  From some quick calculations, I can fit at least 30 pans in the cabinet.  Not bad!   :) 

I decided to change the inside up a little bit because the "marriage" of the drawer fronts and the doors; the whole inside wouldn't have looked right stained, even though I had done that on the outside.  The inside has strips of wood that didn't take stain well (I had to modify the bottom of the door with the same strips, so that's how come I know this), so I decided it was best to paint in this case.

The top was a huge pain in the butt and very time consuming, but a true labor of love.  I traced the letters of a poem I modified, and then went back over them with a sharpie marker, then sanded over them to distress the print and create a bit of a faded effect, then I stained the top.  The top has been treated with 5 coats of polyurethane rolled on (brushing leaves streaks) and then polished in between coats with fine steel wool.

Would I use this technique again?  ONLY FOR PAY!  LOL 

I stained the box with a honey oak stain from Minwax, and then used Valspar ultra white mixed with milk.  YES, you read that right....MILK.  It thins down the paint, allowing for a more translucent coating that allows for the grain to come through.  Don't worry - I have no pets in danger of licking the cabinet.  :)  

After I painted the box with the milk paint wash, I used sand paper and steel wool to distress the sides a little bit so the grain of the wood would show through with its natural color.  The distressing was minor as I didn't need to do much since the finish is rather translucent.  It was just enough to allow any raised grain to come through.  I wanted to see knots and imperfections in this piece.

For the first time, I understand what some have said that a piece of crappy furniture "tells" you what it wants to become once you start working on it.  All the ideas I put into play on this piece, I can't take credit for as Father God blessed me with them.

It was also His recommendation that I give the finished piece back to Diane, so I'm waiting to hear her decision.  If she decides she has room and wants to keep it, that's great and her birthday/Christmas present has been solved.  LOL  If not, then I'll keep the cabinet and then find something cool for her gift.  :)

The great thing about this cabinet is...I know how to make another one should the need arise, so this was a great learning experience!