The Lawyer’s Cabinet

I see this cabinet in the Pottery Barn catalog and I love it -- everything about it – but at $1,499 it’s not in the budget.

Too bad.

Until one day I’m meandering around my office storage area and I see this poor old, scratched-up lawyer’s cabinet that I always loved and I get an idea. I ask if I can buy it for a nominal amount and into the back of the Subaru it goes.

I love my old Subaru.

Here is a photo….not very pretty – yet – but I see possibilities. It doesn’t have the window grilles like the inspiration piece, but I am not deterred…that’s a detail I know I can fix.

Read on.

So, I trot into Home Depot (because you know mine is the house Home Depot built) with the photo of the inspiration cabinet and mosey on over to the Martha Stewart paint section (we also know from previous posts that Martha is my idol) and I buy a quart of her eggshell finish (satin gloss) paint in BARN RED. I give this neglected jewel a good sanding, then a good wipe, and I begin the colorific transformation. Oh, I forgot….I also added a shelf.

This piece does not have the “grilles” you see in the lovely inspiration piece so with the painting almost done, I order custom grilles from Screen It Again.

This is an amazing site. You follow the ordering tutorial and in about two weeks, you got yourself some custom-ordered window grilles to gussy up any plain window. I painted them before adhering to the cabinet windows, which, by the way, was a snap because I ordered stick-on grilles!

After I stick the grilles on the cabinet glass, I am pee-my-pants pleased with how this cabinet turned out. Sorry, but I am.

My metaphoric substitution is not as tall as the inspiration piece and the doors open instead of slide. I replaced the dull metal pulls with fun “clock” knobs I found at Anthropologie for $8 a piece. The catalog description says that the inspiration cabinet is “finished by hand for exceptional depth of color.” There’s one feature both pieces share!

Entire cost of this project....about $60.

At some point, I will replace the solid panels on the bottom with some glass and custom grilles, but for now, I am quite content.

I am linking this post to Primitive & Proper Piece of Work Wednesday.