The Story of a Cabinet

 Once upon a time...

(Like in July)

My husband was deployed.

I had no job.

We were a month from closing on our house.

And I was restless.

So, I started a project!

When Austin and I went to Richmond to hang with his family the weekend before we left, we stopped by this amazing furniture store, Ruth and Ollie in Carytown, where I fell in love with this cabinet.

The super cool retro-ish circles, turquoise paint inside, and inside lighting? 

Sign me up.

Sadly, the $2,153 price tag laid waste to my dreams.

A few weeks later I strolled into a thrift store and saw this baby...are those cool retro-ish stylings on a cabinet that would fill up that bare wall in my kitchen and provide extra storage?

and is that a $40 price tag?

Well, I thought to myself. That could keep me busy. And I had a vision. And I found out it was being marked down to $20 in front of my very face! With that, it was mine. (Though it had no shelves. Back to that later)

She's a beauty, right? no? well, maybe after I clean her?

Seriously, this thing was so dirty, it changed colors as I washed it. 

From yellow to, well, a different yellow.

Then, I took all the doors off, and started sanding.

In my mind, this could be my version of the $2,000 cabinet. No one else really seemed to get the vision. Especially not the paint guy at Home Depot, who was repelled when I had him mix up a bright green for the inside. Yup, his customer service skills were right on.

After one coat of white...

This is where people (read: Leslie and Ashley) started really getting my vision.

Then, I got to move it into our new house!

Check out that pretty green...

Don't mind the reflection from the windows.

Look! No reflection!

Remember how I said that it had no shelves? Well, I had some glass shelves cut to fit the space for shelves inside the cabinet for $12. Seriously! Who knew?

I had glass shelves cut because I knew I wanted to put glassware in the cabinet, so that I could see how it would all sparkle when I turned on the light!

Total cost of my cabinet?

Cabinet............................... $20
Paint and Supplies.............. $15
Shelves................................$12
Total...................................$47
(And as the saying goes - my sanity? Priceless.)

In any case, it might not be my dream cabinet, but it comes pretty darn close for over $2100 of savings.

Though if you have $2,153 laying around...my birthday is in approximately 8 months and I have the perfect place in my dining room for a low and wide cabinet.

Just saying.