Old speaker into Storage Cabinet

 Honestly, not as excited about this piece, but what doesn't speak to me oftentimes speaks to someone else. Didn't have as much time as I would have liked; had to hurry to get it finished in some shape or form.

So here is the piece as I got it. It had been used as a speaker. If I had the luxury of time, I would have converted this the same as the old radio into a modern, useable speaker. Gosh, as I study this picture I realize there was a "frame" that I took off before taking this photo. It covered up the corners where the boards meet and those cracks are visible. Taking off that frame revealed the slender wood pieces across the top of the front were barely held on themselves and were the next thing to be removed.

In the picture above, I don't know if you can tell but the mesh front-panel is not square with the piece. It gently slopes inward at the top. Can you see that? I found that interesting and am not sure why it was built that way.

Here's the piece on it's back leaning on the side. I removed the speaker wire connection there at the bottom of the piece (left side in the photo)

Above is what the bottom looked like. This weird central board that sloped upwards and back and a gap. I removed the rest of the wiring.

Below, when I removed the front, this was my view. Thick insulation. It seemed to be glued to the sides.

When I got done removing the insulation (using a pretty good mask because.....you never know)

I spent some time chipping away at this lower angled board; it was glued and screwed in. Removed the screws and began slowly working at the edges. It all finally broke away and I discovered.......a big ol' trapezoidal hole in the bottom. Okay.......hmmmm. Now what? How do I cover this? Initially you might think just cutting a piece of plywood to cover it all would be the answer. But that would not be easy because of the corners and angles and the vertical boards at those corners-angles. Can you see them? I knew this piece would not be as nice as I wanted, but I wasn't going to also make it so sloppy that no one would want to use it. So, I decided to fill in the trapezoid space itself.

This filling in of the trapezoid space required some extra pieces beneath the space to hold it up adequately. Enter: Kreg jig. Great tool. Here you can see one of the pieces I inserted and glued and screwed. Put one more towards the back to help solidify it back there.

It seemingly took FOREVER to sand the edges of this piece JUST SO, so that it would fit but I finally got it. Used some wood filler around the edges. It wasn't perfect, but I was okay with that because there was no chance of getting all that nasty glue off (again, no time to work on this piece) so it all has kind of a roughened texture on the inside and that will just have to suffice!

Here's what the front piece looks like with all ITS nasty insulation off. It looks decent. Again, I really wish I had the time to spend on this piece. Bones of it are quite solid. Just didn't have the time to make it super fun. I decided the front panel would work nicely as a door that swings outward.

Now was the time to start painting. My sister had tried a brand of mineral paint called Fusion. I recently discovered a booth in a local antiques mall was selling the paint so I went and got myself some to try it out. I used it on the interior of the piece. Let me tell you what, I LIKE THAT PAINT. It has excellent coverage and goes on smoothly. I've used several name brands and this was really really really good....especially considering the uneven finish I was applying it to. #fusionpaint #fusionmineralpaint

Then I started painting the outside. I used the leftover off-white I had from the radio re-do. I did not scuff up the sides and I could have. I ended up applying three coats of it. 

Ok while working through the painting process, I was able to visit Hobby Lobby to try to find hinges and a latch that would work. Lowes and Home Depot have hinges but not very many that are designed to be pretty. Found some and put on. 

Oh, I also had some leftover WAY COOL aluminum decorative sheeting that I have been wanting to use on something. Decided it'd do well for this piece. Spray painted it gold, cut it out to fit the two holes and the rectangle, and stapled in place.

But then these holes were still present. Four holes around each circle and two holes around the rectangle and then holes around the perimeter of the door. ONCE AGAIN, I wish I had the time to figure out a really funky, cool way to redo this cabinet. All I could come up with last-minute was to get some buttons and secure them to each hole. So I did. Larger gold buttons for the interior holes and smaller ones for the perimeter holes. 

Once again I had to insert those fun LED multicolor changing lights. Why not? I even used the speaker holes that are in the back bottom of the piece.

So, Ta-Da! What do you think? Do you like this piece? To me, it definitely has a kind of.....nautical, MCM kind of vibe to it. It has a kind of harsh kind of feel/look to it. I wish I could have introduced some more elements to soften it up. Oh well!