The Cake Stand: A Furniture Makeover

BEFORE:  My ugly duckling cabinet in need of a makeover.

About two years ago, I found this ugly duckling of a cabinet at Goodwill.  It was a quality piece of furniture that had great potential for a makeover.  It was solid wood with a formica top that was in good condition.  But what to do with it?  Because of my lack of inspiration, it's been sitting in my dining room in its ugly state since I paid $20 and brought it home.

AFTER:  A cake-inspired kitsch masterpiece!

At about 1:37 pm on Friday, June 10th, inspiration struck at while I was at the Hidden Treasures Thrift Store looking at a 1973 Wilton Cake Decorating catalogue.  It was to get a cake inspired makeover!

Lucky for me, I buy things like old cookbooks:

My pile of Wilton cake decorating yearbooks and other assorted cake cookbooks.

and old cake decorations:

My box of vintage cake decorations, just in case I ever need them (which, I'd like to point out, I did need). 

just in case I'm ever inspired to make something where I might need such supplies.  Yes, my house looks like a landfill, but I'm prepared for most crafting emergencies.

After spray painting the cabinet two shades of pink, I paged through all the cookbooks and old Wilton cake decorating catalogues cutting out great images like these:

One of the sides in progress.

I fitted them together like a jigsaw puzzle, trimmed them up with a rotary cutter so they would align, then rounded the corners just because I liked the way it looked.  Once I got it all laid out, I decoupaged the pix onto the cabinet.  I'll level with you, I had a hell of a time with the decoupaging!  It's a hazard of living in the desert that things dry fast.  The decoupage medium was drying so fast that I could not work the bubbles out before it would dry.  We're talking less than a minute or two.  It was crazy.  The bottomline is that I ended up with a lot of wrinkles, but what do you do?

A view of the other side.  How much do you love the Barbie cake?

While I was working on the decoupage, it occurred to me that I had a box of vintage cake decorations and that it was only fitting that they be worked into this project.  The drawer seemed like the perfect home for them.

The drawer front.

I spent a good two hours with the box of decorations and my hot glue gun to come up with this collage.  I have to say, I'm a little unsure of it.  It's fun, but it's busy so I question if it goes with the clean edges of the decoupaged pictures.  Of course, this is all just me being hypercritical of my own work.

Extreme close-up; Santa looks mad.

All in all, I'd have to say I'm happy with the way this turned out. 

One last look.

My favorite picture:  geeky bowtie boy with girly pink cake.

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