Antique Cabinet Before and After

My first Before and After-Post!!!


Project Drawing Room is progressing at a slowly but steady pace. There was an old, antique cabinet in the house that we thought might look good in the new drawing room. These cabinets traditionally come with a set of spindly legs and are usually placed in the corners beside the chimney breasts. As those corners in our drawing room are taken up with old in-built cupboards, we decided to float the cabinet on the wall instead. Not quite sure about the brackets with which it is held up, but its current position is growing on me. It makes a nice feature on a wall that is otherwise bare.

However, I thought it looked a bit boring, so I decided to update it a bit with a colourful inside. As it is a genuine antique, I did not really want to decoupage it and permanently fix paper to the back of it. Instead I used a piece of vintage fabric to cover the back. It is the same fabric which I used for my noticeboard way back in July.

I measured the inside of the cabinet and cut the fabric to size. Then I ironed the fabric and also ironed down a hem on each side. To fix the fabric in place I simply used some thumbtacks. They are easily removed if I don't like the pattern anymore and they won't damage the cabinet too badly. 



I think the cabinet greatly benefits from its makeover - it gives a bit of spectacle to an otherwise dignified and elegant piece of antique furniture. It is now a perfect place for the crystal glasses. And it gives my two prized tea sets - one a set of 6 differently patterned tea cups by the Russian Lomonossov Porcelain manufacture brought back 22 years ago from a study trip to St. Petersburg (then still called Leningrad!), the other a recently inherited old genuine Chinese tea set - a perfect display area.