Know When To Fold Them! Know When To Walk Away!

"The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers, those lyrics where in my head as I was doing this cabinet.

Let me back up a bit. I'm moving 2 hours away from where I currently live and have decided that most of my furniture, pictures, knick knacks, etc will not fit in my new place. This cabinet was one of those that got the pink slip. It actually was the table that my soap melter rested on for my other business.  So those items that did not make the grade ended up in my booth at Knot On Main Street. This cabinet need a bit of work before I could send it over there and I was up for the challenge.

As I was scraping the peeling paint from it I discovered that it was actually a laminate cabinet that had been painted over, which explained the peeling paint.  I literally had to scrape almost all the paint off the sides and top. A bit of a big job.

So once that was done my idea was to paint the outside a chippy black paint and the inside a burlappy beige color that would look great with the baskets I had for the bottom.

Besides the paint job I also had to do something with the bottom tracks that was used for sliding doors that today are probably still trying to decompose in a landfill somewhere. My idea for the tracks was to get some wood trim at home depot for a cover up.

First paint was a primer (I used Kylz) on the formica to ensure it would stay put and not peel. I did not prime the inside thinking that it was not  laminate and it would be okay.. Here's a picture of the inside after one coat of the burlappy beige primer built in paint. It took three coats of paint. 

I could go on and on with the other things I did to this cabinet and I wonder why it took so long to come to the realization that it was time to walk away.  Here's what I learned.

1. If you are going to resell start with quality and a formica type cabinet doesn't fit my idea of quality. 
2. I love to paint especially the chippy paint technique but I realized that I really am not to crazy about doing it on large pieces.  So keep it small and simple.
3. It's a bit difficult to make something look like something it isn't. Laminate will not look like an old wooden cabinet with chippy paint.  Though it could be that knowing the truth clouds my judgement.

So after many hours of scraping, priming, painting, fixing etc I decided that it was time to just walk away and let it go.  It served me well for about 5 years first as a display cabinet in my store, then as a work space for my melter for soap making. Here's where you might be asking why not use it again as a display piece? My philosophy for my booth is that everything is for sale and this isn't sale worthy.

I'd hate for this to go to the landfill but in back of my development (I live in a condo community) I'm sure someone will find it and give it a new home.