Book Cabinet

Pictured is an old book cabinet Greg rescued from his sister Wendy's basement. Greg's great grandfather used this book shelf cabinet in his office. We recycled the cabinet and placed it by our fireplace in the living room.

The cabinet was in good condition, it needed very little work to make it usable again. It had minor scratches, the finish was dull on the top of the cabinet and the glass from one of the door panels was missing.

The cabinet didn't need striping, it just needed polished to bring the luster back. Restore-a-Finish, by Howard Products, in a mahogany color, worked very well to cover the scratches and bring the color and luster back. I rubbed one coat on the whole cabinet and two coats on the top.

I decided to use material in the door panels instead of replacing the glass. Some of our furniture is slip covered with a natural colored fabric, so I used a natural colored textured fabric for each door panel.

The natural colored material pops against the dark wood of the cabinet and blends well with the slip covered furniture.

The material was easy to place in the door panels. I used the glass that was still in tact as a pattern to cut the material. I cut the material larger on each side and made a hem on all the edges using an iron on adhesive.

Greg removed the molding from the inside frame of each door. He stapled the material tightly around the edges of the door panel, and than replaced the molding.

This was a very simple make over that took little time and little dollars to do. One of the great benefits of recycling old pieces of furniture is the quality and workmanship of the furniture. Below you can see the before and after pictures of the book cabinet.

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