before and after - filing cabinet

before and after - filing cabinet

{warning: unless you like lots and lots of pictures to look at you might want to just skip to the bottom and see the after. just sayin...}

does it always take months to do a before and after or is that just me? 

anyhoo - for a while i was searching for something to sit beside my desk and set the printer on and hide things inside, including all of our important paperwork.

i happened upon this little number somewhere outside of covington, ga in an antique shop.

ugly? check. terrible color? check. laminate? check. but it had a great top cabinet and the bottom was a pull out filing drawer so it was everything i have been hunting for. ring me up.

i brought it home (in the back of my sister in law's car) and immediately sanded it (see picture above)

then it sat in my carport for... three months. it stared at me every day when i pulled in. it was poor and pitiful and i felt terrible but ... life got in the way for a while. (see here)

i finally got it all finished up and she is a beauty now. i puffy heart love her.

i painted her sifted flour in dutch boy from walmart in flat. i'm not sure what possessed me to buy flat paint but to be honest i love it. and im not really concerned with it getting scratched and dented up because i want it to look work over time. 

here she is with three coats of paint. (i didn't prime it because 1} i didn't have any primer and 2} one coat of primer and two coats of paint = three coats of paint)

then it sat for another couple of weeks and dried. then... then i met myra. and i saw this post on her beautiful stenciled side table. and i fell in lurve people. so i shamelessly copied her put a little spin of that idea on my filing cabinet.

i measured diagonally both directions to find the center of the top of the cabinet which i marked with a tiny "x".

then i taped the stencil down with blue painters tape so it wouldn't try to run off while i went to get my paint.

yes i realize it isn't taped down. imagination people.

 i used what i had on hand, which was just acrylic craft paint. (american in baby blue from hoblob)

(love that sophisticated styrofoam bowl. don't be jealous.)

i used a foam brush to lightly brush it over the stencil being careful not to blob it on.

i wasn't so careful in some places but who cares. i knew there would be a printer sitting on top of it to cover most of it up. :)

i didn't want to cover the entire top so i just went around and kind of spaced them out in a pattern of sorts. very high class and fancy methods here folks.

if you follow me on twitter (@eskyspeaks) you saw a picture of a knob i found at hoblob a few weeks ago.

i fell in love. they were just a little expensive and weren't on sale at the time ($4.99 each) but a little patience with hoblob always pays off. they went 50% off this week so i bought eight for $20.

let me interject here that finding a handle or knob for this was not easy. the holes from the previous hardware were 3 1/4 inch. standard handles are 3 inch or 3 1/2 inch. i finally gave up (after hoblob, home depot, lowes... generally searching everywhere i could around town) and bought these eight beauties. i'm glad i couldn't find handles now because i seriously lall in fove with them. a lot. anyhoo.

here she is in her beautiful, white, fancy glory. i love her. she is my new best friend. i take her with me everywhere. ok not really she is a little heavy now that she is loaded down with stuff. but you get it. 

right? please say you get it. :) lol

and here is my desk area, where i blog and stalk follow you wonderful peeps on twitter. (please ignore the big white circles on the side of the desk and that hideous chair. those are getting fixed.. soon. hold me to it. please.)

 and while i am at it i will show you some of the details on my desk as well.

these are mason jars that hold pens and markers. (yes that is a "beware of dog" sign in the background. it's legit. rebel man is mean to those he doesn't know)

the first one has a picture of me and the prandsome hince on our honeymoon. this picture is proof that people in love are more beautiful. i don't look like this on a normal basis. wait - im still in love we were just all goo-goo eyed and in looove you know.. since we were on our honeymoon or whatever. anyhoo.

the one on the right has a patch from p.h.'s years at centenary college while he was in the choir.

and the middle one has a $2 bill given to us by p.h.'s grandparents at our wedding, a panda bear he made at umarmy and a fluff of cotton we stole gleaned off a field on the road to my first trip to meet his parents.

sappy i know but i like looking at them while i sit here. :) (and hello? big texas star on the jar? yes, please.)

and finally my scentsy and my hobnail milk glass lamp.

so. before:

 

and after:

how did i do?

linking up to :

centsational girl

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