DIY Yarn Cabinet: A Post with a Moral

“Things don’t always turn out the way you plan.”

I hate that phrase.  Yeah, life is full of change and the unexpected always tends to happen and blah blah blah.  Unfortunately, it’s one of those annoying quotes that is so true it demands a sort of grudging respect…and sometimes it deserves to be the theme of blog posts.

I wanted to make a yarn cabinet.  I pinned, I planned, I plotted, and I scoured stores waiting for JUST THE RIGHT CABINET.  And then I found it.  Granted, it was ugly and banged up but that just knocked it down to the perfect price.  I ripped off the door and got to work turning it into a glorious yarn castle.

See the awesome mirror and “wood” lattice work?

Door ripped off and ready to paint!

There was a lot of sanding, profanity, and finally:  PAINTING!  I decided to paint it white (it’d go with everything!) with a chalkboard front.

White Paint. Chalkboard front.

Well, in the photo it doesn’t look so bad.  But after painting it white, it showed every single little hole, ding, and scratch.  And the white just seemed wrong, even though I had spent an hour in a Lowes picking it out.  I was displeased.  Still, I decided if the outside wasn’t what I wanted, the inside sure as hell would be. Another trip to another store! One hour later (I may be the tiniest bit indecisive), I found some scrapbook paper that was EXACTLY what I wanted.  Sure, I should have gotten contact paper…but the three options I found weren’t doing it for me.  There was a LOT of measuring (and remeasuring) and cutting.

Mad cutting skills.

I used a spray adhesive to line the inside and….IT WAS GORGEOUS!!! SO BEAUTIFUL!  Totally made up for the lackluster outside.  Super proud of myself, I started modge-podging my perfectly placed paper liner.  In the words of Pretty Woman:  “Big mistake.  Huge.”  The paper immediately turned to MUSH.  It wrinkled, it bubbled, and all the color smeared.

I WAS HORRIFIED

Lots of profanity, and I tore the paper out.  Out of a desire to have the damned thing done, I slapped the door on anyway (more profanity), spent way too long trying to write something in chalk and called it good.

Ta-Freaking-Da

After I got the door on, a lot happened in my life.  I got a job offer, quit my job I had at the time, and found a new place to live within the span of a week.  Needless to say, the cabinet got bumped down on the list of things I was thinking about.  While it was a lot of change and a lot of chaos, it was better than anything I had planned or even COULD have planned.  A week or two after moving, I happened upon some perfect chevron contact paper.  FOR $3.00.  I took it home and put it in my cupboard.

Chevron

The paper was better than the scrapbook paper I had originally planned for my cupboard.  Granted, most of it is now covered by my yarn stash, but I know it is there and it makes me happy.  The same goes with my entire cabinet–it was definitely a lesson in going with the flow and that your plans aren’t necessarily always the best.  Also, it holds my yarn…which reminds me…I have a crochet project to finish.

Bye Felicia!