apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

love it!

usually i would love anything orange, but that wood grain was so pretty! i could only do this with ugly wood.

I agree..it went from beautiful antique to something you'd find at urban Outfitters.....it was a beautiful piece before... :(

OMG, that gorgeous piece was painted?! That wood was stunning. Too bad it's covered now.

Oh, yeah... normally i get annoyed with the "ALL WOOD IS BEAUTIFUL, QUIT HATING NATURE WITH YOUR PAINT" people... but that wood grain was really outstanding.

Tell us the top was horribly scarred or something, just to make us feel better.

What a shame - those flame mahogany panels were so beautiful before that perfectly awful shade of orange was applied.
:-(

I dig the orange.

I'd like the orange if i didn't know that it looked so much... classier (?) underneath.

It does indeed look like something from urban outfitters, which is great if that's the look you're going for. If it didn't work for you as a wood finish, then i guess it was ugly to you, and so this is better for you! And that's what's important ;-)

You all must be joking... right? The after picture is is fresh, modern, original... dare I say, happy. The before picture is tired, common, and well, just plain sad.

:(

i agree with those who were sad to see the wood go. it's definitely not my style or taste, but i can appreciate craftsmanship and value of an antique piece and it's a real shame that the cabinet looks like a push-up pop.

Oh that beautiful wood. What an absolute shame. Whenever I paint pieces I am very particular about which ones get paint. It's like when I watch those home remodeling shows and some flipper tears out beautiful architectual details. The wood grain was beautiful. Not my cup of tea, but sad to see it go. At most I would've done the orange and left the two main panels in their natural state. Nakashima tells of the stories that wood tells. He is a modern icon and he loved the natural aesthetic of wood. Look at the veins and details of the two panels. They were beautiful.

Guys - the wood grain is still there under the paint. Unless this piece is of real value (for example-made by a known designer, or has particularly outstanding features representative of a particular era), it's perfectly okay to paint it.

The combination of the scrollwork, curved legs and inlaid matchbooked veneer makes the cabinet look tired. The paint brings it very much up to date. When the silhouette trend is over, the owner can strip off the paint. It will be ready for refinishing, or another makeover.

Nice paint job, imo - looks like care was taken even with the interior. The paint color is debatable, but I imagine it would be refreshing to come home to this cabinet on a gloomy Seattle day.

Yep, I loved the wood too, but perhaps the bar looked better in the photo than in reality. That said, bravo on the interior of the cabinet! It looks organized, pretty and functional.

OMG. You painted that beautiful wood? AHHHH!!!

I wonder how much the paint job devalued the piece. I know I would certainly never buy something like that if it were painted over; it's revolting.

I like that sherberty color orange. Better to paint over a peice and enjoy it than let it sit in your garage or worse, toss it out. If the owner didn't care about the wood, it was an improvement!

What a horrible waste. This piece went from beautiful, timeless details to something blah and trendy. And for stripping it back, not only is it 10x more work than painting but you also run the risk of damaging the finish. What a shame, no appreciation.

It isn't my style of choice but I'd rather sell a piece like this and buy something that is than destroy it.

If I hadn't seen the beautiful wood before hand I'd be raving about what a fun piece this is. I think the same feel could have been accomplished with art glass or a runner or stark white walls. It is a really lovely piece and the wood was stunning. However, somtimes something that looks great in a photo are really in bad need of refinishing in person. I hope that was the case with this piece. In which case, paint or no paint the work to recover would have been about the same.

In the end, I was partial to the grain. But it's still lovely and fun and I hope you keep this piece and repaint/refinish as often as life requires.

Seem to me the wood as phenomenal: it was more the heavy yellowish varnish which made it look sad. Maybe if the piece had been stripped and refinished over plain wood with a lighter tung oil, it could have been very lovely and very modern. The scrollwork word detailing on the other hand wasn't very special so maybe they did a good job in covering that. Anyone wonder what it would be like to paint the scroll work and simply refinish the top? Or would that be hideous?
Monday morning quarterbacking aside, they did a great job given their choices.

how could you do that!! it looks nice after... but i LOVED LOVED LOVED it before you painted it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa -- are you effing KIDDING ME?! YOU PAINTED OVER THAT?!?!?!

what a crime. Orange has been so played out and you painted over some insanely nice graining. really stupid.

sure the graining was nice, but the piece does not have good bones, is not an antique, and will never be valuable (for some perspective, it was on sale for $95).

Personally, I think it was a perfect item to paint, although I would have gone with a stronger, brighter colour in high gloss. The paint rather redeems the cheap scrollwork detail.

People, the piece was 95 bucks. It's got no resale value! I would've painted it too.

I'm with Petro . . . the original cabinet was tired and dowdy, the orange revamp is stylin!

All of these traditional pieces painted modern colors are going to look very dated in a few years.

Thank god i'm not the only one who was appalled that somebody would refinish such a gorgeous piece. Ahhh! (i'll admit the orange is cool... but that wood grain should not have been covered)

Not to jump on the OH NO - band wagon but...

If it was up to me I would have kept the exterior as is and I would have painted the interior orange - for the purpose it is used - the orange would get exposed all the time and make me smile everytime I opened the doors.

love the extra storage they created inside. you'd never know it could hold so much.

Another vote in favor of the paint job. I love it!

I think that they did a nice job with the paint job, but it pains me to see such beautiful wood being covered up.

I agree with other posters. The original piece of furniture was lovely. Sure the piece isn't worth much for resale, but the labor to remove that paint and get back the original wood grain is intense. Far more than $95. What a shame. Though I suppose if the owners are happy with it...

im on the fence........

I've been to Antika many, many times and I have a really hard time believing that the piece was only $95. $195? More likely. $295? Even more likely. Also, Antika's stock is always in very good condition.

That said, I like the orange, but I would never paint real wood with such a nice grain.

Unless the mahogany on that cabinet was profoundly damaged and could not be restored, this orange cabinet project is nothing short of the wanton destruction of a beautiful piece of furniture. And furniture that is difficult to find particularly on the West Coast. This is a massive tragedy, a pure travesty of furniture design. I have nothing against painting something orange or any other color, but destroying what appears to be a classical piece of furniture in the name of innovative design by painting it is just plain ignorant.

I can not believe you painted over the wood :0(

i love the paint job! if the piece wasn't that great/valuable to begin with, why not paint it a color that you love?

I'm all for the paint job. I don't love the orange, but I think it looks really good in their place.

Yes, the wood had some nice grain to it, but who cares, the color of that wood looked dated and blah. i mean come on, look at the photo of their space, that brown would have never fit.

It goes along with the fact that so many people love natural wood colors, that they get like 10 different kinds in their room, and it ends up looking like crap.

If it doesn't fit your style or the room, paint it, mak eit how you want. I bet if the wood lovers put up a picture of the same thing and said they were doing nothing with it and showed pictures in their room, a ton of people would post about how bad it looks like that and to paint it.

What makes wood so frickin' sacred to some people? Is there some constitutional right I'm unaware of allowing all wood to go uncovered?

If you love stained wood with beautiful grain, fantastic, surround yourself with it. But nothing so cute, well used, and (I'm assuming) well loved can fairly be described as a "waste" or a "crime" or "stupid" or a "shame" or a "travesty" or a "tragedy" or "ignorant".

Calm down, people. I, for one, have no particular fondness for wood grain, but I don't think it should be banished from other people's homes or that a piece with nice lines and wood grain is a waste even if the owner adores it.

I'm a big lover of natural wood, but I think the "before" was ugly as all get-out. I wouldn't want it in my space. The orange is a great update. And if the orange looks tired in a year or two, guess what? You can paint it powder blue! Or black! Or green and purple polka dots! Better to paint and love it than preserve and resent it.

Well, that looks So Five Minutes Ago already. Talk about deep fashion-victization. Why not hot-glue some fuchsia dingle balls to the bottom while they were at it? I think I need to take a chain saw to a couple of fugly Eames shell chairs to restore the natural balance of the universe.

I am a huge fan of natural wood, and my parents have fabulous taste and a sawmill.
The "before" was in no way a fine example of beautiful natural wood. The paint was a 3000% imrovement.