Vintage Victrola Mini Bar/ Liquor Cabinet With Stain Painted Images

by M&M Embellishments

3 Materials

$475

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A friend of mine had this antique victrola that she had given up on refinishing so she passed it along to me. I got right into dismantling the non working parts and had a vision to make it into a wine bar.

vintage victrola mini bar liquor cabinet with stain painted images

But like my firiend, I lost steam and the victrola sat for months. It needed so much cleaning that I kept putting it off. The wood was beautiful but needed so much work that I thought this was a good opportunity to try out some new paints.

I realized when I took out the parts, I would have to add a shelf to the inside of the lid. Also, the bottom of the main interior compartment was so bad that I decided to add a new piece of wood in there as well.

I finally got up the energy and cleaned it all up with TSP after dismantling it. I did a coat of shellac to seal in the tannins (to keep the old, rich wood from bleeding through the paint).

I painted with two coats of Wise Owl Paints in Limestone for the exterior and Higgins Lake for the interior. I almost gave up on painting the inside of the small doors because they are soooo long and narrow, it was very difficult. But I managed to keep going and get the job done!

I added a coat of Polyvine, and some crackling occurred. I'm still not sure why that happened, but I decided to just go with it, as it isn't too much and not unpleasant - just adds character to the vintage piece. I'm pretty sure the reason is because I didn't wait long enough for the paint to dry, but not positive.

I then added a wash of Shabby Paints Black Revax and wiped off until I got the look I was going for. And one more coat of Polyvine.

Now for the fun!

I hand stained a French Typography onto the two front doors - this isn't a stencil.

And I hand stained the images onto the new shelf. I also attached the original metal plate in the corner and used a gilding paste on all of the hardware.

And for the icing on the cake....

I hand stained the image of the wine/ barrel/ grapes onto the top of the lid!

Another couple of coats of polyvine onto the images for protection.

Then I added hardware on the inside of the two small doors for hanging glassware, and onto each side I added a towel bar and a hook on the other for hanging wine opener and other necessities.