Don’t you just LOVE this old cabinet?

It’s an old redwood cabinet that is solid as a rock and weighs about as much as my car.  It stands about 7 feet tall and 5 feet wide and, since my house doesn’t have a pantry, currently serves that purpose.  This thing holds a full metric ton of stuff, I swear.  Maybe more.  Problem was, it looked beat up and had few too many holes and no real door pulls to speak of.  See?

I figured out that I would have to spackle and fill until the cows came home until I happened upon a solution in my local Lowe’s hardware store:

Are you thinking what I was thinking?  Genius, right?  I bought 2 of these for $7.27 each and headed down to the cabinet pulls and knobs aisle and picked up some nice big, pulls.  With some basic tools like a power drill/driver, and about 30 minutes of my time, this is what I got:

Oh, yeah.  Did I forget to mention that I painted the piece before installing the hardware?   The color is really similar to the original shade of gray.  I basically mixed several latex paint colors that I already had until I said, “Yep, that’s it” and slapped it on.  Seriously.  If you think that painting is hard and time consuming…you…are…wrong.  Sorry, I hope that wasn’t too harsh.  This piece took me maybe 30 minutes total painting time (not counting drying time) to paint.  It is not rocket science.  Easy-peasy, puddin’ and pie.  This is an old piece so I didn’t want it to look new.  I think the dents and cracks and area where the chunks of wood just splintered off add character.

So, whaddya think?  I must say that I love it!  It still fulfills the same purpose, but with a heck of a lot more style.

So, is your mind reeling with ideas of how to use Kick Plates in your home?  What about adding them to some dresser drawers?  Maybe even an actual door?  These babies come in several sizes and finishes.  What about lining up two or three of them, mounting them on the wall and making a magnet message board (just make sure the particular finish you use is magnetic),  or one per child for hanging their artwork?

Why don’t you take a trip to your local hardware store.  You never know what treasures might be found there.

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