Transforming My Mama's Old Chinese-Style Cabinet || Part One: The Drawer

My Mama's old Chinese-style cabinet has been with us since I was in elementary school.



The base is already taped to stop it from falling apart, the paint and design have faded, there were cracks and chips here and there, and the handles are broken.

The cabinet itself, aside from the base, is still pretty sturdy, though. That's why we decided to save and give it a new look.

Earlier this week, my father fixed the base of the cabinet. I'm in charge of the redesign, so I asked my father to paint the whole thing black.

I asked Mama what kind of design she wants. Initially, she requested that I just redo the old Chinese-style painting or design, but later changed her mind. She asked me to create a nature/landscape painting.

Then, I had a playful idea I proposed to her. I want to paint nature and some of the cute creatures from Ghibli! She readily agreed since she's a huge Ghibli fan.

I rearranged my work schedule. I decided to work earlier than usual and free my evenings so that I could work on various projects at home... including this.

I could start on the project last Thursday. In the afternoon, I took the drawer out because I decided to work on it first.

I asked Papa to keep the butterfly from the old handle and add two pieces of wood on both sides as the new handle, since I have a plan.

Using white acrylic paint, I covered part of the drawer. This will serve as my canvas. I decided to paint it in the afternoon, so I could start working on it at night.

That night after dinner, the dining table became my work area. I prepared the necessary items to paint. Don't mind my mixing palette... I usually leave the paint I used the last time to dry so it's easier to clean.

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I mostly did the background and not much with the details yet, except for the sky. Since we're doing Ghibli and nature-themed, I went for fluffy clouds.

The reason why I didn't want the butterfly design removed is that I wanted to include it in the design. I made it into a butterfly fountain. And this was what I finished last Thursday night.

I could only work for around two hours each night, and I had to do more coatings, so it's taking longer than usual.

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The first thing I did was apply another coating to the greenery before coloring the area in the middle a grayish-brown.

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Remember the new handles to open the drawer? I painted the cute Totoro family on one side and the Cat Bus on the other.

Then, I added the flowers to the fields. It's a colorful flower field with a cute butterfly fountain in the middle. Let's take a closer look at the details. :)

These small details ended my Friday night session. I worked on them for almost two hours. My Mama was watching anime in the living room, so I also watched while waiting for the paint to dry. hahah

It was looking much better after the cute details...

Then came Saturday night (tonight)... and I feel like I'm going to finish this part of the cabinet. :)

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First, I painted the outline of the subjects using white paint. And by these shapes, you could already guess what they are... especially when you're a Ghibli fan. :)

I then added the base colors before moving on to the detailing and outlining. They're so cute!!! I believe painting on a 10 x 10 cm watercolor paper helped me become less shaky when painting tiny details.

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And it's done!!! Well, at least the drawer is... I'll probably be working on this whole project for the rest of this month. I'll only have two hours max every night to work on it... and this drawer is the tiniest portion of this project.

It's pretty enjoyable, though. It's a nice way for me to relax after work. :)

Yep... this cabinet is going to have a completely different look soon. The first part was a success, and I actually like it.

My Mama and Papa also loved it, and are excited about what's going to happen next. haha I also was chatting with my bestie a while ago, and I sent her a photo of the drawer, and she found it nice. She's also a huge Ghibli fan!

So yeah, that's it for now. I'll be updating on this project again after finishing another part... so please look forward to checking it out!

Thanks for reading, and see you around! Have a good one! (^^,)/