Old Philco Radio Cabinet Turned Out to Be the Perfect Size...

This ragged little antique Philco Radio cabinet picked at an estate sale was truly one of the worst pieces I've ever attempted to recycle. Almost every inch of veneer was peeling, feet were rotted and uneven and it had a big hole in the top where maybe some sort of control panel had been...

I've seen dozens of upcycle ideas for pet beds and have been on the lookout for the perfect sized piece for some time... finally this turned out to be "THE" piece.





It would take hours to give a detailed step by step tutorial of this project as it was time consuming so I'll give a brief description tutorial - if anyone needs more specific details please reference the step # and I'll give all details in comments below.
1) Cleaned entire piece
2) removed hinged top, hinges, and missing control knob panel inset & interior cabinet bottom
3) Peeled off large pieces of veneer and reapplied using wood glue & clamps; used small paint brushe to get glue in behind veneer that was just lifted at edges and clamped.
4) using cabinet top as template, cut out a piece of wood to adhere to top to cover control knob panel hole & using construction adhesive adhered new wood to cabinet top
5) measured legs and cut to longest length possible then used filler to fill in edges of remaining damaged areas
6) sanded entire piece
7) applied primer to entire piece including interior, top & bottom
8) Painted interior (SW - grayish) and exterior (custom color I mixed) - 2 coats each
9) shabbied up a bit - roughed up edges
10) waxed entire cabinet and top
11) took some white vinyl I had on hand and covered cabinet interior bottom using spray on adhesive - reinstalled bottom inside cabinet
12) Reattached hinges and top to cabinet
13) Applied nail head trim and burlap detailing
14) added pet bedding.





As you can see - our kitties agree - it's the perfect size. P.S. - I left the sides (where the rotted speaker fabric had been) open because kitties love to be able to pass thru spaces but for a puppy these could easily be covered using some old lace curtains or whatever scrap fabric or material one might have on hand.












Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/9697359/old-philco-radio-caninet-turned-out-to-be-the-perfect-size site