When we bought the house a year ago - we found the previous owner had this old cabinet in the work room. It sat next to a wall that leaked water occasionally - and the cabinet was wet - warped and musty...but salvageable. It first went through a cleaning with a bleach solution to kill the mildew - then we let it sit for almost a year - with dryer sheets in it to absorb the smell.
The cabinet is an old pharmacy cabinet - probably from the early 1900's or so - based upon some papers and price lists for Dr Humphries medicnes - and some writing in the drawers indicated where some medicine was kept.
Recently as I began work on the living room - we pondered the use of this cabinet for a TV stand - so I stripped one of the drawers to see what kind of wood it was - it may have been mahogany based upon the red stain...that would not come out - so we pondered painting it.
But I thought I would just sand that one drawer to see if I could get through the purple red color - and surprisingly I could - and it was revealed to be oak (at least that is what I suspect)
So I have been at work sanding - staining - varnishing - and painting this old cabinet in my spare time. What also amazed me is that each row of drawers is from the same board - which means that all the wood grain from one drawer matches up to the one next to it..pretty cool.
The new top came from an auction that had an estimators desk made from nearly a full sheet of 3/4 oak...got it for $5. - Knocked it apart and cut a new oak top for the cabinet.
The hardware is original - painted satin black - I have had to custom order screws to put the "index" label holders back on. They are not all on as of this picture. I had to paint the screws as well as the old ones were black - and it is nearly impossible to find round head black wood screws as the orginal.
Today - we moved it upstairs!
Scroll down for the Result!
TA DA - New Life!
Oh yes - we began decorating for Christmas too!
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