Project time

A couple weeks ago my Mom and I made a trip down to Ikea and were looking for a cabinet for my living room. We’ve been on the hunt ever since I got my new desk last October (the arrival of the desk started a domino effect of furniture moving room to room within my place … which I’ll post about later)

The trip was good; We found a modular piece-it-yourself cabinet that would work but I wasn’t too keen on the doors. I figured, though, that with the amount of storage it would provide I could get over the doors not being quite what I wanted. The price being more than I was ready to pay (windshield wiper fiasco wiped me out there for a bit), I figured out the pieces I would need to make my return trip a quick one … but my Mom had other ideas.

The Cabinet

She thought a second hand chest of drawers would be best (she did not like the Ikea idea at all … even after I showed her my out-of-season bedding situation) for both price and style and, though she didn’t find anything on her own, we found a great solid wood cabinet when we went out last weekend.

I already mentioned the cake and pie carrier I found, but my Mom found this tall dresser while we were waiting for a chair she had previously bought to be loaded into her car.

I’ll admit, the fact that it had a $39 price tag on it was a lot more tempting than the Ikea solution, but it needs a lot of work. And I was really wanting furniture that was ready to go. But I argued the missing handle on the left door was worth at least $10 bucks off. For $29 this Sherrill Furniture dresser is mine!

This cabinet is huge – just under 4 feet wide and a shade over 5 feet tall – and it is heavy as hell. Somehow, with the help of the guys who worked at the store, we got it on top of my Mom’s car … but I had no idea how, without the 2 guys and the loading ramp, we were going to get it off the car and up the stairs into my second floor apartment.

Only a hope and a prayer are getting this thing down

It's in!

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Don’t ask how, but we finally got the cabinet untied and into my apartment, albeit upside down, but the key is: it’s in my apartment.

After a lot of scrubbing with some diluted Mr. Clean, the piece looks pretty good. It could use a sanding and I’d like to paint it, but the reviews on that are mixed: My Mom thinks I should go for it and make it a really cool painted cabinet … but the wood is pretty nice and could just as easily be cleaned up and restored. Decisions, decisions!

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Here’s a look at a few other pics:

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