A nice little cabinet

I bought a little china cabinet from the Castle Furniture project here in Cupar.  It is a great charity who not only benefit disadvantaged people but also remove hideous mirrored wardrobes for a very reasonable price.  Their furniture is great value and we have had several things from them – most recently a solid oak dining table with six chairs for £200.

Anyway, the little cabinet is probably 1920s and has had a bit of a hard life.  This was it as bought – the bracket at the top was hanging off and inside someone had lined the back of the shelves with a bright shade of sticky plastic film.  The shelves themselves were a faded grey which made it look coated in dust.

I repaired the bracket, peeled off the plastic to reveal the original backing (damasked silk) in quite good condition, and relined the shelves.  This last task was not very easy – I used a linen effect paper which was supposed to be for book binding.  It was meant to be self adhesive but it didn’t stick to the backing very well so I had to glue it down.  Then I polished the whole thing with a heritage beeswax polish.

In total it cost about £50 and I think it looks quite nice although it is not quite the right date for the house.