Mmmmmmmmm BOP!

My grandfather (aka Bop) lived to be a 101 years old! Who does that??? I hope not me! That is soooo old! Ugh!

When he died several years ago, many of his belongings found a home at my Mom's house. I eyed up a cabinet she kept in the front bedroom and when I moved into my new house she begged me to finally take it away. So the story goes: my mom, her sister and her brother all pitched in and bought Bop an RCA Victor record player console. I did little to no research on this piece, but from what I Googled I'm guessing it was made some time around 1949-1951. Not super old, but old.

I can certainly see why nobody but me was really interested in the piece. I saw the potential as soon as it came to her house.

Of course, because I'm horrible at the before pictures, this is a pic I found online. It is an exact match. The condition of mine may have been slightly better, but not much.

Yep, she's a beaut!

I found this pic online to show you what was inside:

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

To those people who are offended by anyone who would "destroy" an antique by not restoring it to its' original glory, you may want to look away....

Although I have a great appreciation for the beauty of original pieces, for the most part I will paint it, hammer it, glue it, put glitter on it, you name it, and I will do it. (Oh and for the record while I’m at it, I will also paint oak trim AND brick)

That was your warning, because here it comes.... my trash to treasure....

So what did I do? First let me say this was another project that took FOREVER! Mainly because I just cannot make things easy on myself. If the shortest route between two points is a straight line, I can assure you I will take the curviest line possible. I'd like to think that it has been during these long curvy routes, I've learned a lot along the way.

Yeah. Sure. Ok.

I started this project in the summer of 2011. Yes, you read that correctly... over a year ago. Now it didn't take me a year to do it, in reality it probably took me a week or so, give-or-take. First I ripped out all of the guts. The radio and record players didn't work, so I didn't feel bad getting rid of everything. Then I tore out the lovely gold speaker fabric with metal accent thing (not sure what to call it). Then I applied the first coat of stripper and scraped it off.

The project came to a screeching halt. Why? Because stripping wood SUCKS! I mean, it really sucks! But like all projects, I invested, so I had to finish the job.

This summer I was back at it and I stripped and stripped and stripped. Then I sanded…A LOT. Finally, I was able to stain it with left over stain from the work my husband is doing in the basement. I'm not sure what kind of stain this was, but I like to call it “magic stain”. Because it looks like stain, but goes on like paint. I really, reaLLY, REALLY wish I would have known that before I spent hours stripping this piece. I'm not 100 % certain, but in hindsight I think I could have probably gotten away with giving this piece a light sand and then applied the stain without all that stripping. I can't even begin to tell you how comforting that thought is! It’s so nice to know that yet again I’ve wasted tons of time.

Anyway, here's the project cost break down:

Cabinet..........................................Free
Stain..............................................Free
Stripper.........................................$10
Bin pulls (Home Depot) ..............$20
Knobs (Ikea) ................................$6
Basket (Meijer).............................$15
______________________________
Total Cost.....................................$51

Not bad for a new cabinet! I'm very pleased with the finished project. I think it's a total transformation.

~Sheila

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