New year, new glam cabinet

December was a bit of a write-off between work blues and winter blues. Looks like January and February aren't going to be any better on the work front but I'll keep my little fingers crossed...

I had a good few days at home over Christmas and came back with all sorts of ideas about things to do in the flat only to have a major reality-check when I opened the front door. Heck but there's a LOT of work to do. At least I now have a clearer vision of how I want it all to come together design-wise. The key will be getting the electricity sorted. Once that's out of the way, I'll be able to get the sitting room and bedroom into shape and the kitchen and bathroom will come along in their own sweet time.

In the meantime, I decided to go for a quick win. Not quite so quick in real life but a win nonetheless. Still a few little things to tidy up but, over the last couple of weekends, I've:

- taken the other, very shabby, bedside cabinet I bought in the dépôt vente by the Bassin de la Villette

- (that I'm planning to put in the bathroom once it's all tarted up and has a new, smaller sink and more, em, forgiving, tiles)

- sanded it down (resorting to nail varnish remover when it came to extracting old wax from the more inaccessible carved areas - surprisingly effective)

- sanded it again with fine grain and wiped it all down

- and painted it with black gloss

Needs a little finishing but it's looking pretty fine, though I say it myself.

Note, also, that the bedroom door is CLOSED in that third picture. Yep, I decided minimizing dust levels in the rest of the flat was a bit of a priority so I went at the door with the roughest sandpaper I could find and managed to get rid of the extra layer of emulsion/gobs of old paint/sloppy-drips-and-runs that were keeping it from closing. Crazy amounts of dust - I now understand the work that will be required if ever I'm to close the other doors in here...