Seahorse Sculpture Cabinet

In a moment of madness I decided to spend all my spare time creating a Seahorse Sculpture Cabinet for my mermaid themed living room. I was inspired by a free cabinet I found on Facebook market place. The cabinet was so sweet and had such a beautiful curved glass front. I couldn’t let it go to landfill. So this colourful creation is what I dreamed up to save it!

MATERIALS

Zinsser BIN primer, Three shades of cupboard paint, acrylic paint, metallic acrylic paint, metallic spray paint, powder paint, air-dry clay, modroc bandage, masking tape, carpet tape, plaster of Paris, painted canvas, carved wooden embellishments, gold leaf, glitter, spray varnish, polystyrene, packing worms, aquarium, accessories, shells, metallic card, cardboard pistachio nut hulls, hot glue, silver foil, clear acrylic lacquer, USB fairy lights, USB wave effect light

TOOLS

Hot glue gun, paintbrushes, scalpel, clay, modelling tools, paper punches

First of all, I prepared the cabinet by removing the shelves and giving everything a good scrub with sugar soap, after which I wiped it down with clean water..

Once the cupboard was completely dry, I taped up the window with brown paper and masking tape and sprayed it with a couple of coats of Zinsser BIN primer Sealer. I use this because it sticks to glossy surfaces extremely well and saves me the trouble and mess of sanding the cabinet. This is important to me because I live in a flat and do not have a proper workshop.

I painted the cabinet with a gradiation of three shades of cupboard paint. I used a spirit based paint because it is far sturdier and survives wear and tear better. I started at the bottom with the darkest colour and worked my way up to the lightest colour. I did this three times.

For the top centre panel I utilised some off cuts of painted canvas from a previous project. I cut a large rectangular panel off the sunset for the top of the cabinet and two strips of ocean for the narrow side panels. I attached them with double sided carpet tape. I ordered two wooden seahorse embellishments and attached them to either side of the top of the cabinet with hot glue. It’s nice because they are facing each other. I decided that the top centre panel still looked too plain so I cut and arch from cardboard and attached it to the sunrise painting. I also found two corner embellishments in my stash and added them to the corners of the arch with hot glue and I found a clam embellishment which I placed in the centre of the arch. I painted all these areas in cupboard paint to match the cabinet. On the sunrise painting I added a plaster sun face that I cast from plaster of paris. I dabbed some gold size around the underside of the arch and on the face of the sun and once it was tacky I added gold leaf.

I cut a piece of hardboard to fit inside the cupboard to give it a curved back. I did this because I felt that it would give a better look to the finished piece than painting a corner. I did not need to fix the hardboard as it was a tight fit, and stayed where I put it. I painted the hardboard in streaks of blue and green acrylic paint and added thinner streaks of blue metallic acrylic paint to simulate an underwater environment.

I made a shoal of tiny fish to decorate the painted ocean. I started with a couple of handfuls of pistachio nut hulls. First I spray-painted them green then I used a paper punch of a fish skeleton to create the fins and tails which I attached to the hulls with hot glue. I dabbed a bit of gold size onto the fish and added some green foil leaf. I created the cute fins on the side of the fish with a very tiny leaf punch. I painted black and white eyes onto them and I glued them to the back board with hot glue.

In the bottom of the cabinet, I created a mound from scrunched up newspaper and bubblewrap, which I held in place with some masking tape. I covered this with a few layers of Modroc bandage. Once the mound was dry, I mixed some powder paint with some plaster of paris and painted it over the Modroc to create a smoother finish.

To make the coral I hot glued packing worms to a rough piece of polystyrene. I layered them up to form a coral shape and then I sprayed them pink and yellow.

I moulded a clump of tube coral from air dry clay, which I held in place with wooden skewers until it was dry. I textured the surface of the coral with a ball headed modelling tool. I also created a starfish from the same clay and decorated it in the same way. I left it to dry on top of the mound in the bottom of the cabinet so that it would retain the shape. It took about a week for the pieces to thoroughly dry. Once they were ready, I sprayed the coral with two shades of pink spray paint and I sprayed the starfish with orange and red spray paint. When the spray paint was dry, I gave them both a coat of acrylic lacquer and sprinkled iridescent glitter over the coral and orange glitter over the starfish.

To complete the base I spray varnished the mound and added gold glitter. I added the coral clumps and the starfish and secured them with hot glue. I painted a large snail shell and a clamshell with acrylic paint and added a coat of lacquer and glitter. I also painted a coral fan dish that I owned and doused it liberally in purple glitter. I know that I should have some before & after pictures of this, but I got a bit overexcited and forgot. I bought a white coral fan from eBay and attached it to the back of the cabinet.

To make the seahorse I used half of a polystyrene wreath-base. I packed it with newspaper and I created a head and a curly tail from scrunched up silver foil. I added a cardboard fin and bound everything together with a liberal layer of masking tape. Once I had the shape sorted out, I gave the whole seahorse a layer of modroc bandage and then added more modroc bandage to create ridges along it’s body and spikes down it’s back. Once I had achieved the desired pattern, I painted everything with a layer of plaster of Paris to smooth it down.

I left the seahorse to dry out for about a week, and then I painted it in red and orange acrylic paint and added a white eye with a black iris. Once the paint was dry, I varnished it with acrylic spray lacquer, and sprinkled it with iridescent orange glitter.

I attached the seahorse to the back of the cabinet with a block of polystyrene and as much hot glue as I could muster before it cooled. I should’ve taken pictures of this, but once again my excitement overwhelmed me.

To create the illusion of depth, I added coral pieces to the sides and the window of the cabinet, so it would appear that you were looking through an overgrown reef to the see the seahorse. I bought two plastic coral clumps from eBay and dismantled them. I used the two smaller pieces to add to the base display and the four larger pieces to add to the sides and window. I sprayed them first with primer, and then with metallic green spray paint. I added glitter (of course) and an extra coat of acrylic varnish, just to make sure that the glitter stayed where it was put.

To light the sculpture cabinet I used two an Ocean Water Ripple LED Projector which comes with a remote control. I suspended the projector to the top of the cupboard from two brass cup hooks. The projector lamp also comes with some basic music options which are not very good but it also has Bluetooth so I can play Ocean Sounds while the light is on which is pretty cool. I drilled some holes in the top of the cabinet for the USB leads and fitted a three meter extension lead with USB ports.

I later decided that the cabinet still looked too plain so I painted the archway blue and added gold stars and I painted the seahorses orange and added glitter and Gold leaf. I am finally happy with the whole piece and I hope you enjoyed sharing my project.

I later decided that I would also decorate the lower half of the cabinet. I decorated the lower cabinet in a similar way to the cabinet above. I made the octopus from air dry clay over a base of silver foil and glued it to the door with Araldite Epoxy Glue. I painted it with orange acrylic paints and sprayed it with a couple of coats of acrylic varnish. I found a lovely fish handle for the drawer and painted it in the same orange as the octopus..