I got this little gem at the thrift store for $4.50 and used it at the last place to hold my growing collection of Etsy shop merch. Well, after moving my furniture to the new pad, I was horrified to find that my beloved cabinet had betrayed me. How, you ask, can a piece of cheap, old furniture commit betrayal? The beast left a giant, bright orange rusted spot on my linoleum. Don’t worry though – I still love it {and was able to sand the rust off the floor and polish it to get my deposit back}, so I decided to give it a makeover.
The cabinet was a sickening harvest-gold-meets-avocado hybrid with a sooty, stained top, so I went through three cans of white semi-gloss spray paint making it presentable. I sanded and buffed the top and threw on the mid century modern chrome knobs, and then I hammered some little feet into the bottom to protect the floor at my new, not-yet-destroyed apartment. I turned it into an island/countertop extension for my studio-style kitchen, and I honestly love the result!
When I was in college, I rescued a cabinet very similar to this from someone’s trash. My Gramps & I stripped it, painted it and he put a nice butcher block top on it. I used it to store cat food in my tiny apartment. Almost a decade later, it was banged up pretty badly in a cross-country move. The insurance adjustor who evaluated the damage gave me $300 for it after I told him the story. Then he fixed it for me free of charge. It now holds my Etsy inventory. (It’s also left plenty of rusty footprints behind.)
This is the coolest thing I’ve seen all day! Bravo!!