Searching for low cost ideas on how to update a cabinet? We have an idea for you that is easy on your budget and looks great too.
Do you recall the cabinet that was left in our basement and was from the original kitchen design from 1950? We made a few changes to it this past weekend and I have to say, I like it more this time around than I did when we first made it over. When we purchased our home, the original kitchen cabinets were in the basement, along with the original stove. Yep, it still works too! I actually love it, but Mr. Vintage was not so fond of it so it is still in our basement waiting to be used again.
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| Before the new make over |
The kitchen cabinets still had a few things left in them from the previous home owners. We found all of the window cranks for our casement windows, a few small crocks, hundreds and hundreds of hooks for traverse curtain rods and some other odds and ins...
We did not do anything with the kitchen cabinets for so long. They just sat in the laundry room and collected dust. Then one day, I was thinking about our home and items I wanted to search for and I decided to start in our basement. I had wanted a cabinet for the first floor bath, something upright, something that would provide a little storage. I wanted a wood cabinet... and pine was at the top of my list, because I love pine!
Well, as luck would have it, the free cabinets in our basement were all pine! I love the knots in pine... there is just something about them... so I told Mr. Vintage my ideas of saving money... he pointed out of course, because he notices these things, the cabinets did not have a top or back. They built the cabinets on site, and they would have gone all the way to the ceiling... something I want for our kitchen when we make changes. Don't worry, I had suggested putting up the old cabinets in our kitchen, but he was not keen on the idea.
In order go get to reuse this cabinet, we decided to add a back and top to it. Before I go into details, I would like to suggest a few shows. If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch free remodeling shows filmed in England. They are so resourceful and make over items all of the time with next to no cash, and I am in LOVE with so many of their DIY shows! Nick Knowles' Original Features, My Derelict Home, and Original Home Restorations are a few I found myself addicted to. Whenever I found a free moment, I was watching one last summer. I was in awe of how home owners would take these derelict homes and then remake them. I was never disappointed, that was for sure. There were a few home owners who ran out of funds to finish their home by the end of the show, but I was always surprised by all that they had accomplished on so little. I like to think I learned a thing or two watching those DIY shows.
Back to the cabinet... about the time we were working on the cabinet, I was getting very frugal and trying to use items we already had around the house. Hubby came up with the idea of taking cedar pickets left over from our privacy fence and using them on the back of the cabinet. I liked the idea since people line their closets with cedar all of the time. He cut them to the measurements of the cabinet and we added them to the back. Then we used left over wood from our built-in cabinet from our kitchen to give the cabinet a top.
We recently decided it may be in our best interest to scale down a bit to a smaller leg on the cabinet. Peanut sometimes gets pretty rambunctious and we were afraid he would hit the cabinet and since it was top heavy, it could come crashing down on him. Aren't these legs fabulous?
We decided to paint the legs white with the same paint we used on our cabinet by Benjamin Moore. This piece was painted and originally looked identical to the ones from
The 3 R's post.
He had to use a very large drill bit to make a hole in the top of the leg so we could place the recoil piece inside the leg. Here is where I struggle, I have no idea what these things are called... after he created the hole, he was able to screw in the thread insert piece to the left of the leg.
He used this allen wrench set to make the thread insert flush with the top of the leg. This could get pretty comical so bare with me... I can come up with a million ideas, but he is the one who knows how to use the tools and what they are all called.
He then screwed the stud (long screw) that comes with the set down into the top of the leg where the recoil was as pictured above.
My job was painting the legs and putting these nice pads on the bottoms, LOL. They came with the legs and I was actually impressed they did. We no longer have to worry about scratches to the marble floor now.
Here is a pic of the hardware that came with the legs.
You can see where he made a large hole for the plate piece to go into and we hit nails in the process, silver shavings galore went flying...
It was a perfect fit! Then he marked the locations of where the other screws would go.
You can see where the marks he made are and he is drilling those holes now. All we had left to do was thread each leg with the plate in place. Do you know how many times I have wanted to say the thingamajig, or whatchamacallit? Every time I was describing these things... that is how many!
The cabinet is so much more stable now! I repainted some parts of the cabinet that were not looking so good. I painted this entire side to give more coverage so the nails did not show as much on the cabinet where the shelves are nailed in from the side.
Here is a picture of the back, you can see the pickets almost look like bead board along the back.
I am planning to search for baskets for the lower part around the house so it looks more organized. I just have not had time to do it. I cannot honestly believe in all of these years no one has not painted the inside shelves or put shelf liner on them. I am so glad they did not though.
She is a shorter cabinet, but I think I really like her better like this. She actually looks like a piece of furniture now. Since we had the paint on hand, the cabinet came with our home, we had the pickets left over from our fence, and the top came from our
kitchen built in.... this was one very reasonably priced project. I found the drawer pulls at Hobby Lobby and since I only needed four, it kept with my rule of only buying
drawer pulls/knobs in bulk when looking for more than four.
I was going to keep things simple on top of our cabinet, thinking less is more with only our
vase, but then chose the more is more route and added these string pearls, and more flowers to the vase, and of course small swags to the top of the cabinet too... I do enjoy making it look fancy pants after all. I am on the hunt for a disc that lights up to place under the vase so the bird pattern will be illuminated. It is actually stunning when the light filters through it.
It's a good thing Mr. Vintage does not mind me being girly... because I tend to sprinkle it throughout our home! Do you like sprinkles of girly in your home? Thinking about adding cabinet legs to an existing cabinet? It was a simple project, completed from beginning to end in about 2 hours, and that included cleaning out the cabinet too.
She is still not perfect, but I am over the moon with perfectly imperfect any day of the week!
Interested in
unique home décor... we have a very unusual piece you would never think would belong on a mantel...
Dress up your curtains with
jewelry... yes, jewelry... always sharing our ideas with you... and we do come up with some unique ways to get fancy pants in your home on a budget. Until next time...
