It seems we are spending every weekend doing something to the house, from painting to organising. We have this huge need to simplify, de clutter and downsize, and like every minimalist knows, it's always a work in process. Take books, for example. You can be a minimalist and still end up with too many books scavenged from op shops. The trick is figuring out what to do with them and whether to hold onto them after they are read.

Two years or so ago I picked up the below bookshelf/storage unit for free. We had to knock the top off so it'd fit in the door. It sat in my yoga room and became my apocathery and jar storage unit. Except I hated it - it was messy, old fashioned, and ugly. It didn't fit my minimalist aesthetic - clean. organised, calm.

For months I'd been trying to figure out how to reconstruct it, and convince my husband to help. That thing was HEAVY. With old furniture you can look at how it's built and what you'd need to do to alter them. We started by chopping off the top and bottom, and removing the decorative features - I wanted something more square. I didn't need the bookshelf as I was taking a lot of books we didn't read or have already read to the op shop.

After that everything needed a good sand, and a fill with putty, and a few tacks to hold wobbly bits in place. I was a bit worried about the bit beneath the drawers, but it came up quite well.

Then it was four drawers and two doors - removing hardware, sanding. I use an orbital sander so it doesn't take too long. As these were going to be white washed rather than painted, I had to sand all the old varnish off.

Then I used a white wash - well, a combination of a white wall paint and the Cathedral Taupe colour I had bought from Fusion Mineral Paints. I never imagined I'd go for a taupe but the room I had painted a few weeks back was leaning that way and it seemed so calming. With a wash you mix the colour, and add water about 80/20. You spray the pine with a water bottle, then brush over the wash, and after a minute you rub it off with a rag. One of the primary reasons for doing this with pine is stop that yellowed look pine tends to get. I actually really like pine - I like the knots, and I love a pine forest with mushrooms, so why would I be anti pine? And some of that old furniture, like this one, is made pretty well.

In the photo above, you might notice the door fronts - I coated them with a paintable wallpaper, sticking them down with modge podge, drying, and then painting. There are a couple of bubbles but not that you'd notice - besides, if I call it 'shabby chic' then they're allowed ;P

I had bought these pulls from the homewares shop in the next town. I had found some cheap ones on Ebay for $4 each AND Kmart had plain gold ones for about the same price, but I fell in love with these - it cost me $60 for six, but then that was the price of GOOD handles online, but I'd also have to pay at least $20 postage and wait for them to come from the UK. Plus, she said I could bring them back if they weren't right.

After painting the entire cabinet with two coats of paint, Jamie made me some shelves with some scrap plywood we had lying around. This was the utterly free part. Screws and scrap ply we don't count in the budget, but I guess you'd add about ten bucks if you were buying it from somewhere. You might notice in the photo I didn't pain the ceiling twice - but I'd run out of paint, and you don't really notice. The top 'apocathery' part of the cupboard has so much space there's a kind of desk too for writing down herbal formulas and preparing teas etc. I could hang a couple of my herbal prints I'd pulled out of a very old herbal book. On one side I have horseradish, the other elecampane.

Here's the cupboard without the doors, before we hung the frames. We also put a shelf at the bottom for spare glass bottles and a basket in which I keep all the dropper bottles tins, and other useful things. Below that will go my dehydrator as well as my sheets for this room, in a basket. The drawers are very long and spacious, and I plan to store pillow cases and hot water bottles on one side, and on the other, likely bags of herbs and other things. In this photo you can see the gold feet, which I got off Ebay. I'm really happy with them and they suit the colours, and make it more fresh and modern. Scroll up and look at the 'before' picture - ugh. It's so dark and heavy.

I also decided to line the drawers with some gorgeous mushroom paper - not that you'll see it much, but I'll know it's there, and it'll make me smile when I see it!

And here it is in it's entirety! I'm so happy with it. It's a little hard to capture the colour in the different light but I think that's what this Cathedral Taupe just does. It's a brilliant paint. There's so many great colours as well.

It doesn't need much prepping - just a scuff sand - and doesn't need a primer, and has a built in top coat. It's super hard wearing when it cures after about five weeks - like you can't even scratch it easily! So whilst it's expensive, it is actually the far better investment, particularly as it's so easy to put on.

Here's the room with the cabinet in there - there's still space for me to do yoga and it feels really roomy, though it's a large cupboard. The colour isn't hugely dominating and it suits the room really well. You bet I'm spending a lot of time in there!

I also did a pretty pointless exercise in decoupaging some paper in the drawers. At least I get joy when I open them - I love the paper. Zoom in - can you see why I love it?

Those of you who know me will completely be able to say why..

Is Upcycling Furniture Worth The Money?

Let's get one thing straight - upcycling is not FREE. It costs money and time. Time wise, this took me two days, but also a couple of weeks of thinking, planning and sourcing the materials I needed. It was a LOT of effort and many times I wondered why I didn't just go and buy a piece of ready made furniture.

However, let's break down the costs a little.

Item	Cost	Notes
Wardrobe	$0	It can take a long time to find the piece of furniture that is perfect for your needs!
Paint	$50	If you have leftover paint, try that. However, I'm in love with Fusion Mineral Paints - great colour selection, great coverage, hard wearing and a beautiful finish. As this was a large project I used a whole 500 ML, but normally I'd get a couple of items out of that eg four bedside tables.
Door pulls	$60	Better if you have existing hardware you like - some people use metallic spray paint to refurbish. Possible to get cheap hardware from Ali Express or Ebay. I wanted something strong, unique and beautiful.
Sundries	$20	Don't forget to factor in a good paintbrush. We also used a few screws and scrap plywood, but you might need to buy some.
Labour	$0	However, time is money! When people sell this furniture on, if you factored in labour costs, the cash you get for a sale often means you are working for less than $3 an hour! However, if you're not selling them, it's a labour of love, and that's another story!
TOTAL	$130 AUD

If I don't count my labour in this, I would say $130 for a piece of unique furniture you absolutely love, that has character and has been an enjoyable creative project, is a bargain. IN this case, upcycling a piece of furniture is absolutely worth it.

However, anyone starting something like this has to know it can be harder than it looks. It's important to research 'how to' do it, know some painting tricks, and spend a lot of time researching exactly what you'd like to do. Sometimes it CAN be a matter of 'slapping on a coat of paint', but most often times, for a truly nice piece, it's a lot more time consuming and costly than people thing.

What do you think of my 'new' cabinet?

Do you upcycle or flip furniture?

With Love,

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