The Redo That Wasn't

If you follow any home decor blogs, you've seen some AMAZING furniture transformations. Usually it's drastic. Beautifully painted pieces that make a statement. I especially love the china cabinets. A painted cabinet adds so much interest to a room. One of my favorites? Look at this one from Brooke @ The Crafting Chicks:

Really beautiful, don't you think?

Enter my china cabinet:

Let me tell you the story of this cabinet. When we were buying our first house, we had nothing. A friend of ours was handling the sale of some of her mom's furniture as her mom transitioned into a nursing home. She had this cabinet, with a matching dining room table and chairs set. She wanted $750 for the set. Our friend (likely remembering her own poor as dirt newlywed days), said she'd give it to us for $7.50, and just tell her mom she got seven fifty for it. (So kind!!!)

And there you have it. This set served as a our kitchen set the last 7 years. Now that we have a dining room, it's in there. It will be replaced someday, but considering the other furniture and expenses we've got at the moment to furnish our new home, this set will be hanging around for a while. I don't hate it, but I wanted to try and spruce it up a bit.

Unfortunately, since it's a matched set, there will be no painting of the china cabinet. So what else could I do? Hardware! Replace all that bronze with something shiny and new.. I was going back and forth between brushed nickel (to match the builder chandelier), and oil rubbed bronze (which is the direction we're headed). I got really excited about how this little update was going to make such a huge difference. So excited in fact, that I grabbed a screw driver and paint scraper, and proceeded to pry off ALL of the back plates. The back plates have a screw pull in the middle, but then nails on the top and bottom of each as you can see below:

So anyway, when I say pry, I mean pry. Those nails have been in there for 50+ years, and weren't dying to pop right out.

Now for the easy part, the drawer pulls.

And I kind of forgot about the hinges. But since they are on top of the doors instead of mostly hidden underneath, they had to be included too.

So here's me, all proud of myself for prying all those back plates off without damaging the wood. I've got my little baggy full of the different pieces parts and head off to Lowes in search of something new.

Now, if you've ever replaced furniture hardware, you know where this is going...

First, no one makes those hinges. And when I say no one, I mean NO ONE. Not only did they not have them at Lowes, but I drove an hour to another hardware store that is said to have the largest selection in the state. Bust. They don't seem to make them anymore. I did find out they are 45˚ offset h-hing though! Not that it helped. The sales lady actually said she had someone a few years back cut notches into her doors to get rid of that 45˚ angle so that she could use some 90˚ hinges. Sad, but not defeated. At this point, I'm still trying to make this work.

And then I see a china cabinet redo from Beckie @ Infarrantly Creative:

Awesome! I love the fabric in the doors. I think it's game storage, so this way you don't see all the stuff inside. But really what got me is that she painted the hinges! So I emailed her, and she promptly replied with a link to a tutorial she has for painting metal (thanks Beckie!) Crisis averted. If I can't find the hinges, I'll spray paint them to match my new hardware...which by the way hubby was so NOT on board with. He's a bit afraid of me and spray paint. Not that he has reason to. He's just never seen me wield a can before. I'll have to work on that. Besides his (adamant) hesitation, the idea is still working in my head.

Except. Along with the hinge trouble, I ended up having drawer pull trouble. A pull is a pull, right? WRONG! Mine are 2.5" on center. The standard is 3", but you can find them bigger too. Smaller? Good luck. 98% are the cup pulls, which I happen to be fond of, but hubs hates the look. Plus it might have been too contemporary for the set. The other 2 I saw? one was pretty much what I already have. The other was a really thin chrome bar. Bust. Now, I'm sure I can find them online. I've actually looked. The problem lies in finding matching back plates. And I was hesitant to spend all that money and have one company's "oil rubbed bronze" not match another's.

Now, I know I can spray paint everything. But if I screw it up, I'm stuck. I already know there is no easily (or cheaply) replacing this hardware.

And so sadly, all the brass went back on, nails and all.

The redo that wasn't.

But, I'll make it work. I'm slowly decorating around it. I've got a few things in place already, but I'm going to make you wait until it's all done to see all put together!

The moral of the story? Only pry off ONE piece of each hardware type before you start hunting down replacements. If it's an older furniture piece, you won't likely find stuff that fits just right. And if you do? Fantastic! At least someone did :)