How to Transform a Cabinet into a Mini-bar?

How to transform a cabinet into a mini-bar?

I picked up this solid wood cabinet and I’m going to make it into a mini-bar for my niece.

List of products used:

Wooden Cabinet
Colorantic Cleaner & Varnish Remover
Colorantic Chalk Based Paint: Mermaid
Resin moulds
Colorantic Chalk Based Paint: Caribbean Sea
Colorantic Chalk Based Paint: Cactus
Water Mister
Colorantic Colour Black Wax
Colorantic Colour Gold Wax
Tissue Paper
Colorantic Matte Topcoat
Hairpin Legs
Colorantic 35mm oval brush
Colorantic Sanding Blocks
Gel Stain Walnut
Old pulls
Shop Towels (they won’t leave lint)
Colorantic Mango Soap to clean my brush (I love this stuff)

Here are the steps to transform a cabinet into a mini-bar.

Preparation

It’s always best to clean your piece, to ensure grease, grime and dirt are gone. At that time, you can take a good look at your piece to see if it needs any repairs.

In this case, it was missing part of the back and repairing it would take more than just wood filler. I used a two-part filler to fill out the back. I also decided to turn this piece upside down, which meant moving the front plate to the back to create a little nook on top. The hinge on one side was also loose, so I removed the screws and added bits of a toothpick. This was to give the screw something to grab onto and to stabilize the hinge.

I sanded the whole piece, nice and smooth, as I was going to stain part of this in walnut and paint other parts.

After that, I had to pay particular attention to the top, because this was never properly finished and was quite rough.

I moved on to staining the inside of the cabinet as well as the top part in a Walnut colour. Once it dried, I put 2 coats of the topcoat on it. Once those had dried, I protected the areas with brown paper and painter’s tape. At the transition line between the stain and tape, I put a thin layer of topcoat on the tape’s edge, to ensure a crisp line.

Steps to follow:

I added a base coat, because this is pine and it can run. I then added a resin mould to each door. Over the paint, I applied the base colour, which is a 1:1 ratio of Caribbean Sea and Mermaid colours and sanded lightly between the 2 coats to ensure a smooth finish.

Now for a bit of excitement…using a 1:2:3 ratio of Caribbean Sea, Cactus and Mermaid colour to help create some dimension. I put an extremely thin watered down coat over my base colour, allowing it to show through. I cut out the interior portion of the doors to add even more dimension.

Then, I sealed the painted areas with 2 coats of topcoat, sanding again in between. I then added cold to set the resin in the molds.

Finally!

Now for the final touches. Then I added the legs and the hardware and took a good look at the bar. Though I liked it, it needed a little something more to give it a weathered look. I grabbed the black wax and applied it to certain areas to give it that worn, shabby chic look.