Chelsea's Garage: Brand new favorite

I am the girl who cries "favorite!" Every few weeks, it seems, Matt will walk in the door after a long day at work and I will be spilling with excitement over my latest piece, telling him it's "my favorite one I've ever done", and "it couldn't BE more ME!" I literally bubble over when I am this excited about a piece. When I step back after finishing something and see that even a piece of furniture can take on the vibe and style of the person who worked on it, I get giddy. The feeling never, ever, gets old...which is why after two + years of doing this it is still as much, (if not more), fun as when I started!

So here it is: My current favorite piece!

A beautiful china cabinet with caged doors - just what I've been looking for - for THREE years!

You may be thinking, "Gee whiz, it took her 3 years to find this? I see these all the time!" Let me rephrase. It took me 3 years to find this in my budget" Granted, it's not like I was looking every day or even every month. I'm sure a few good ones probably came up on my local craigslist and I didn't even know it. Here's what happened: I found an amazing dresser on craigslist at an even more amazing price. When I went to pick it up, it was in a garage STOCK PILED with solid wood, antique pieces. I spotted this piece, (which was separated into two pieces), in the middle of the garage surrounded by 20yr old boxes of cereal, 40 year old toys, bugs, dust, etc. I asked how much and was told that it belonged to a roommate and he'd have to get back to me. I told him I would pay $35 max, since it didn't have shelves, (low, I know, but I have a hard time paying more than $10-$20 for anything, so to spend $35 on a piece I didn't really need was a lot). 6 weeks went by after I turned down a price of $60, and finally I was offered the piece for $40. $5 more than my max....but I went for it. My sweet husband encouraged me to go for it, knowing how much I really liked this piece, (AND we found just enough scrap pdf board in the garage to make the shelves, so that cost nothing!)

So, I got this one for $40. Now that it's finished and in our home, I think it looks priceless. I hope to have the opportunity to pass this one down in my family. :)

I spray painted the caging in the doors as well as all the hardware black. It really is beautiful hardware and perfect for this piece - never let the finish on a piece's hardware sway you. It can always be spray painted!

Matt says my decorative Christmas angels look like they're in jail. Hmph!

I heavily distressed this piece, and for no other reason than it just kept looking better and better the more I did!

That's what I'm talking about! A gorgeous, solid china cabinet that leaves lots of space for my little ones to do their laps! My 3 tots have a habit of running circular laps through the kitchen, dining room and living room. This is a high traffic spot and I wanted to leave it as open as possible for them. :)

After completing the gallery wall to the left and now the china cabinet, our dining room feels so much cozier! Since we have such an open floor with no definition between the dining room and the living room, the presence of this china cabinet really helps to enclose the dining room, making it feel like it's own space apart from the rest of the floor. I know that adding a rug under the table and chairs would also help greatly, and trust me, I have been tempted time and again. But my excuse is my toddlers. They're just not the cleanest eaters yet. Not even close, actually. After every meal I am on my hands and knees picking up crumbs, wiping up milk. It's easy to just clean the space up in a few seconds with my swiffer mop...I do NOT have the time nor the energy to be spot cleaning a rug right now. We'll be rugless for a few more years probably, so I have to define our dining space in other ways :)