An old cabinet sanded back, its slats replaced with MDF board, coated with homemade whitewash and drawer fronts decorated with dowel.
The project
When I got this piece it didn’t look too bad but it was so dirty and smelly.
I wanted a raw timber top, so I sanded that down to raw timber before mixing my own whitewash together using 50 percent water and 50 percent white paint. I brushed that on, wiping any excess off with a cotton cloth.
I removed the back and replaced it with 10mm MDF from Bunnings.
I cleaned and scrubbed the whole piece down multiple times, using a range of cleaning solutions including vinegar. The Ryobi cleaning drill brush set was a big help for this. Next, I filled in any dents or scratches with wood filler, waited for it to dry and sanded it down. Moving onto the body, I gave it a scuff sand using 120 grit Diablo sandpaper.
Later, I sealed the top with British Paints one coat clear. Now the fun part - I bought some cover stripping from Bunnings and cut them to length to frame the drawers up. I glued and nailed them down. I wasn’t a fan of the door slats and didn’t want to deal with the pain of painting them, so I kicked them out and replaced them with a weave textured paintable wallpaper that I glued down to 10mm MDF and stapled to the back of the door.
I had bought some dowels from Bunnings and I cut them down to size and then used Gorilla wood glue to glue them on the framed front of the drawers. This took longer than I’d care to admit.
I taped around the edge of the top with masking tape to protect it when I primed and painted. I used frog tape on the legs to add some paint detail. I used Dulux’s precision maximum adhesion primer. Next I painted the colour on, Melange ONE's Knapsack Khaki.
The next step was to stencil the sides of the drawers for a pleasant surprise when the drawers were opened.
Lastly, I drilled the holes for the new hardware I’d bought from Bunnings and attached it to complete the look.
Before and after
