Rorschach Cabinet

I've been on the hunt for one of those old wall mounted spice cabinets

with little drawers to hold spices or whatnots.  Well, I finally bagged my prize

 in an antique shop in a small Wisconsin town on our recent road trip.

I forget the name of the town, but according to the banner strung across its main street

the city folk will soon be hosting their annual Rutabaga Festival.  I'm not sure what

sort of activities are involved, but it sounds like a gas to me!

Here it is painted and ready to hang on the wall.

Now maybe I'm fixated on cutout designs lately, but if I were taking the

Rorschach test, the first thing out of my mouth would be

Mickey Mouse!

The ears may be slightly out of scale, but you can see it.....

can't you?

Here's how it looked when I found it......

I've seen these cabinets priced anywhere from $20 to $140 and frankly can't

see much of a difference between the high priced cabinets and thrift shop models.

Lots of factory distressing and lack of dovetail joinery indicate this piece

is not of heirloom quality, which is why I got it at the low end of the price range.

It does have some history to it, though.  At one point Kathy Bates had at it

with her baseball bat and broke both tibias.  But being the kindly caregiver that

she is, she nursed it back to health with some gloppy wood glue.

Well, I bit the bullet, fired up the jigsaw......

and put it out of its misery!

(I amputated both legs.)

After performing the surgical procedure, I painted the cabinet with

homemade chalk paint, which is still new to me.  I mixed flat green paint with

non-sanded grout. ( One cup of paint to one tablespoon of grout.)

The antiquing, on the other hand, is a decades old technique

practiced by decorative painters.  A dab of burnt umber oil paint mixed with a dollop

 of Johnson Paste Wax does the trick.  If I'm too heavy handed with

the dark wax, I just go over it again with untinted wax.  Sound familiar?

The last step is flyspecking.  Water down a few drops of black acrylic craft

paint and flick it on the piece with a stencil brush (even an old toothbrush will do).

Transformation complete.

Here's a wide angle view of the cabinet hanging above the laundry chute.

In the background, you can see more of our unfinished projects like the

built-in bench in the entryway that has been stripped and.........forgotten.

Not to mention the unfinished wood floor we uncovered when

we removed the 1970's linoleum.  And I'm so ready to paint over the

"Bear Paw" color of the kitchen walls!!!

It's time for a change.

But don't hold your breath. I've got one guest bedroom nearing completion and I

will not start another room home reno project

until said bedroom is back in use!!!

So.  Did you see Mickey Mouse in the cutout design of the cabinet, too?

Hmm, that's too bad. :@

 I'm sure there must be a self-help book out there for you us.

Thanks for visiting.

Vickie

Joing the parties at:

Common Ground Vintage Inspiration Friday

Knick of Time Tuesday

Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Specail

Historic Home Tour: Part II

I'm back to be your guide for the second half of the

historic home tour started here.  I hope you brought your

walking shoes!

Let's start with this simple Victorian and work our way up.

(Remember, you can click on the photos for a larger image.)

Yes, we will work our way up all eight stairs to reach the front door!
This town is built on a series of steep hills overlooking the river, so walking here is a workout.

The owner's guard dog was barking at me while I was taking this photo,

so I didn't notice that my camera was focusing on the iron fence.

Oh well, I'll use it for future reference since it's the fence I want

 in front of our house.  Do they even make this style anymore?

 

And speaking of fences.....

Cute corner fence detail marks the perimeter of this yard.

Pretty blue beadboard above another fabulous wood door.  Wait a minute....

There are 2 of them! 

These homes are huge!

Look at the detail on this porch!

You can check out the whole neighborhood in the convex mirror.

Gladys Kravtiz would have loved it.  "Oh, Abner, come and see

 who's taking pictures of our house!"

This house has it made in the shade!  There's just something about this particular old house

surrounded by mature shade trees that has my name on it.  Yours, too?

Let's get a little closer, shall we?

 What can I say?  This home was meant for moi.

Perfection.

Garage stalls for our 2 cars and our kayaks.  And if that's not enough.....

A guest cottage where our grandchildren can play make believe.

*And Grandma, too.

Okay, let's move on.

Many of these older homes are in the process of restoration.

 

Red geraniums are the perfect accent flower here, don't you think?

And of course my favorite Annabelle hydrangeas in their yummy lime green stage.

Below you can see the entrance to the garden in back.

And last, but not least.........

A  bed & breakfast.

Pretty acorn lights and an unusual floral arrangement to match the color scheme.

See the curtains hiding behind the pillars?

If you look real hard you can just barely make out the mermaid water feature under the pergola.

At this point it was starting to rain and my camera and I had to call it a day. 

 

The dark green gazebo is just the spot to rest after

 our walking tour of riverside homes. 

"I'll have an ice tea with lemon and sugar, Jeeves."

Did I accomplish my goal of finding the perfect shutter design?

No, but it sure was fun looking!

Thanks for coming along,

Vickie