The Cabinet: Almost a Before-and-After

Last week was a prolific week for reveals, but this week, we will have to settle for some excellent progress instead. I am not sure from an outside perspective if it looks like I get a ton of things done or if I am all over the place. It might be a little of both. Typically, when I leave something unfinished for a length of time, I am still actively planning ways to complete it. That was the case with this cabinet I brought up from the basement. It had plenty of problems to solve.

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Dumpster desk had such a nice ring to it, and I have been trying to come up with a name that accurately describes this basement find. All I could come up with was the crappy cabinet. Please add your submissions in the comments. Anyway, this cabinet was rotten on the bottom, presumably from a few basement floods.

After a good scrub and fresh paint, it looked much better.

However, it was still pretty junky, a stark contrast to the mural and the freshly finished dumpster desk. So, I abandoned the cabinet for a bit to think about solutions.

Recently, my enthusiasm for this underdog returned, but we discovered another problem. Old houses often have issues with sloping floors. Fortunately, in BHH, it is just a case of settling over time. Even so, the cabinet looked funny and uneven pushed into place.

With shorter furniture, it is not very noticeable. Tall pieces look like they are tipping over.

Check out the bubble in the level. Perfectionists, avert your eyes.

Like most project curve balls, this one forced me into immediate action, which also sparked a solution for the cabinet base ugliness.

I ordered these heavy-duty leveling feet.

Since the bottom edges of the cabinet were too unstable to drill into, I built a new base out of scrap 2X4. The photo below shows the base pieces before I attached them.

The feet were super easy to install. First, I drilled a 7/16″ hole for each.

Then, I hammered the metal part into the hole.

Finally, I screwed the feet into place in the lowest position.

To attach the new base pieces, I drove screws from the top of the bottom shelf down into the 2X4s.

The new base improved the stability, but it still did not look very pretty. So, I headed to the basement to look for something decorative. Luckily, I found a piece of primed MDF. I don’t even remember why I bought it in the first place, but I prefer to use real wood for BHH projects. Putting it on the bottom of this cabinet was the perfect use.

The angles were not perfect 45-degrees, but they were close, and wood patch works as a decent cover-up on a painted furniture.

It is a little tricky to see, but I also added a 1/4″ thick piece of flat trim across the face of the 2 X 4. It’s the unpainted section.

I also caulked the seams, and once the caulk and wood patch dried, I sanded those areas and painted it all.

My son helped me scoot the cabinet into place, and I rotated the feet to level it.

Success!

I wish I could say this is the end of the story, but here’s where I make it clear that this is a process post.

Once we pushed the cabinet in place, my daughter and decided that it would look better painted the same color as the room trim.

I am not sure what color that is since it was here when we bought BHH. However, an excellent dupe is Sail Cloth by Benjamin Moore. I have some in the basement, so we will get right on that. Also, I am pretty sure I am going to have to rework the bottom of the door just a little. I will take a look this weekend.

M’s teen bedroom makeover is moving right along. The last major projects are the headboard and the window restoration. I hope that we can make good progress on both during the rest of this week.

Are the floors sloped at your house? M’s bedframe rocks so much it is practically a cradle. I’ll be adding some leveling feet to it as well.

Thanks for sticking with me during all of this. I know this makeover is taking forever.