Corner Cabinet Makeover

Yes, this is one of my favorite contests!

Trash to Treasure!

I'm going to show you how we took a junky old corner cabinet and gave it new life.

Junky old corner cabinet

Paint stuff

-Chalk paint

-Chalk paint brushes

-Top coat color (optional)

-Clear wax

-Wax brush

Window stuff

-Wood to build the window

(Frame, front and sash)

-Glass pane for the window

-Hinges

-Knob

-Chisel and boxcutter to make the mortises

LED lights

-Lights from AliExpress

-Double-sided tape

(The 3M tape they send is weak)

We bought this corner cabinet for only $5 at a local used shop.

Funny thing happened too! The sales guy was surprised we even wanted to buy it.

Dude was like: ”This?”

With any piece of furniture, the first step is alway cleaning and as you know, you need to clean before you paint.

This cabinet wasn’t too dirty, so warm water and a rag did the job.

We used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and the best thing about most chalk paints is there‘s little prep work involved.

There are really only two times prep work is needed.

1. The furniture has a really slick finish.

-You‘ll need to knockdown the finish or prime.

2. The furniture is deeply scratched, chipped or rough.

-You’ll need to fill in or fix the areas and sand.

The cabinet was too bad and all I really needed to do after cleaning was some hand sanding. I sanded down the scratches and used the sandpaper to round the broken corner.

For the outside, we used Annie Sloan French Linen and Annie Sloan Clear Wax. Yeah, Annie Sloan products are expensive, especially the brushes. Even more expensive here in Japan. The paints and waxes are quality and fun to paint with, so it’s great stuff to try at least once. We make our own chalk paint too and people love saying “make your own chalk paint,” but there is a difference. I think store bought is better…..hey, don’t attack!

My lovely wife uses the Annie Sloan brushes, but I do not. They’re so expensive, I don’t want to get them dirty…isn’t that crazy? Anybody else feel the same way? 

It’s like my Dyson too…I don’t want to get it dirty…😂

For the hole in the side: I matched the wood and cut out a circle to patch it using super glue.

My wife did all of the chalk paint paint work used Annie Sloan Primer Red as a base coat on the inside. We like that chalk paint texture, but didn't have a chalk paint color bright enough for the inside.

The inside was painted with Kansai Paint: Denim Blue. This paint is awesome, because it’s super pigmented and covers well, but it‘s best to wax or topcoat it. The color slightly transfers onto rags when you clean the surface.

If you didn’t know this already, I have the most gangster hobby ever. I collect teacups.

Yeah, I'm all kinds of dangerous and I have the teacup collection to prove it.

I made a window to display some of my gangster tea stuff and this window is an easy build. Just three pieces of wood glued and screwed together. It‘s the same window design I use for all of my mosaic stained glass projects.

For the corner cabinet window, I wanted a level look, so I used a sash piece the same thickness as the front piece. It’s difficult to see the two pieces, since they lineup, so I’m showing a different window frame, built the same way.

The caulk is optional.

I made mortises to hide the hinges on the cabinet and frame. A mortise is just a hole or recess, cut into a part which is designed to receive another part so as to join or lock the parts together. Mortise hinges are the ones where the hinge “leaves” are designed to lie on the plate or mortised into the door frame or jamb. I used these hinges, because I already had them in the workshop.

*You don’t need to mortise the hinges, but again, I did to hide them. Just measure, make outline cuts with a box cutter and chisel out the depth you want.

I used a wood planer on the window frame piece until the window fit perfectly. It took a long time, but I recommend a planer over a sander, because it’s easy to over sand.

Waxing seals and protects furniture. It also make the color pop a bit.

All you need to do is apply a thin coat of clear wax and work in small areas at a time, wiping off any excess with a clean cloth.

I bought these lights off of AliExpress and am very happy with them, but the 3M tape they send doesn't hold up well. I recommend not even messing with it and buying a better double-sided tape. The lights took like a month to arrive too.

To install, I attached the port hub to the back of the cabinet and drilled a hole to feed the lights in.

What do you think?