Midcentury Modern China Cabinet Update

I purchased a Midcentury Modern China cabinet a few years ago for $100. It wasn't my first choice, but it was in my price range so I decided to make it work. In my opinion this piece was not rare or made by an in demand manufacturer so I didn't feel like I was committing a sin changing it. I felt like all my china and barware blended in to the cabinet and my collection didn't get the attention it deserved. Here is the dining room shortly after new wall paint.

I knew I wanted to leave the piece as original as possible, but somehow make it a little more dynamic. I contemplated wallpapering the back and decided I wasn't THAT desperate for a project. I finally settled on painting the inside of the piece. I purchased a few quarts of mistinted paint from Ace Hardware and found the perfect complement for my dining room's color palette. I decided to take a chance and paint the inside of my china cabinet. Here's a peek of the mid project mess...

Rather than go all in and potentially ruin the piece; I opted for painting the ugly backside of the cabinet. The backside had a rough texture and was stamped with production dates, I worried the paint may not camouflage well. After two coats of paint and 24 hour dry time I replaced the backing piece and secured it with new nails. Once the piece was put back together I chose my favorite pieces and put them on display!

Dining room chair redo!

While looking for a new dining room set I stumbled upon a near mint MCM dining set for $100. I had to convince my Mom and Stepdad to drive me to Middle of Nowhere, North Dakota with their truck. Turns out that was a six hour roundtrip. The last half of the trip was pretty tense because I was terrified the chairs were going to fly out of the pickup bed. We didn't bring near enough tie down materials. Lesson learned=ALWAYS bring extra tie downs. I knew I didn't want to touch the bones of the piece but I definitely wanted to update the chairs in some way. The upholstery was not original so I didn't feel guilty changing it up. I had never tackled upholstery before, but my husband decided he was up for the challenge! It turns out upholstering chair seats is incredibly easy, ANYONE can do it! All you will need is a screwdriver to remove the seats a few yards of fabric, a good pair of scissors and a staple gun. We began by removing the seats, set them down on the fabric and then started cutting. We followed up by pulling the fabric taut and started stapling. Our results were surprisingly successful considering how non technical our technique was! It really is THAT easy.