Things That Are Not Beaded

OK, so this is beaded, but I finished it yesterday or the day before and it's no longer in my present.

 What I've been doing is making a mess in my driveway.

 I acquired these cabinets that can accommodate the standard size jewellery display trays, which is just as well since I bought a bunch of unfinished wood trays some months ago, intending to attempt to make these cabinets, but with one thing and another, I didn't, which works out OK because I'm pretty sure I'd have failed miserably, almost like the guy at Home Despot today who could NOT figure out how to cut a two by four foot board such that (among other pieces), I would be able to walk away with two pieces measuring about sixteen by twenty-two. He didn't think it could be done. I managed to convince him that it could.

So first I stripped off the nasty fake oak finish - can someone tell me why cheap furniture that has an "oak" finish ends up being a really bilious yellow? - which took a while, even with the fancy non-caustic modern paint stripper which smells unsettlingly citrusy. Then I realized that the supports for the trays are spaced to accommodate one-and-a-half inch high trays, and mine are mostly two inches high, with a couple of one-inchers.

So I removed a bunch of the supports which made it easier to strip away that nasty yellow stuff which by this time was sort of pinky and goopy from the stripper. Now of course I have the additional task of cutting and nailing new pieces in. Tomorrow perhaps.

I had bought some copper spray paint, the wording on which assured me would yield a hammered or forged effect, but which turns out to be true only if you use enough paint to make it start dripping off the surface, so I sprayed a border of metallic dark bronze but that only made it look like some lame faux antique as you can see there on the left, so that goes the same way as the yellow "oak" finish on the cabinets which yes, is still on the interior back wall and which will stay. Those doors are now enjoying the effects of citrus paint stripper.

Then I decided that a black and gold crackled effect would be even better, but apparently the fashion for paint special effects has raced off into the past no matter how many stores you go to, hardware as well as "craft", about all you can find are paints that promise to look like sand which just doesn't appeal, so I bought some glitter and some black paint and if the instructions for Tuesday's class go really fast, I may get to the glitter tomorrow, otherwise I'll be here, trying to figure out (a) what I did and (b) how to describe it.