A dark cabinet goes light and fresh in turquoise and white

Who doesn't love a reveal that shows something dark and dull transformed into something bright and fresh?  Over the past year, I've been on a quest to brighten up our living room and tie it in more with my bright white kitchen, which is open to the living room.  I've been making lots of changes, including new art, new pillows, new accessories, and most recently a new rug.  Today I'm revealing my fresh, new turquoise and white cabinet.

How about a before and after?

Quite a difference, eh?

I purchased the cabinet (which you can see originally had two glass doors) from Crate & Barrel after we moved into this house, to fit just perfectly under the high window to the right of our living room fireplace.  The cabinet could be purchased in white or a dark stain.  At the time, I thought white would stick out like a sore thumb, so I chose the dark stain.

Fast forward to a couple years later, and I moved it down to my workshop to paint it turquoise.  I moved something else in its place, which we were happy with for a while, but it too had a wood stain and I was craving something brighter.  Finally I convinced myself to take the plunge.  Instead of doing an all-over turquoise, I decided to do a white/turquoise combo.

You can see the difference that this and several other changes have made in the brightness and life of our living room!

The "after" shot was not as wide of a view, because I have more changes coming very soon above the mantel, so I'll do a wider shot when I share that reveal.

In the meantime, here are some additional beauty shots of the new white and turquoise cabinet.

You can see in the room shot above that I changed the styling a bit from the up-close shots.  Had to fit our DVR in the cabinet.  It's an essential in our house, but it's a bit of an eyesore, so hopefully I camouflaged it a bit with the books and mother-of-pearl box on top.

For those who might be wondering, I used spray primer on the whole cabinet, then my paint sprayer for the white. I used a combination of a brush (for the crevices) and a roller for the turquoise.  I used my sprayer again to put several light protective coats of Polycrilic on the whole piece.  By the way, the turquoise paint color is Glidden's Tropical Lagoon.

I like it so much better with the new color and without the glass doors.  It's more of a bookcase than a cabinet now, I guess!

How about one more shot of the before and after?

What do you think?  Are you a traditionalist who preferred the darker before, or do you like the more modern new look?

Hollie

Linking to:

• Piece of Work Wednesday at Primitive & Proper 
• More the Merrier Monday at DIY Home Sweet Home
• Overflowing with Creativity at It's Overflowing
• Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things