Bar Upcycle
If you've been following us for a bit you know we have an obsession with Rebuilders Xchange here in Cleveland. From their website, "RBX buys and sells construction material from ordinary to extraordinary. RBX is in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood in an organized, 50,000 sq. ft. warehouse." And BOY is that true. They have some amazing pieces and some really wacky stuff.
We've been visiting RBX bi-monthly for the last year hoping to be inspired, and also desperately in search of something I could turn into a better bar for our strange dining room space. We even picked up the door for our bathroom remodel at RBX (you wouldn't have seen photos because it's still in the garage needing to be sanded...), I digress.
We saw a post on RBX's instagram about a record player cabinet and thought it could be super cool for a bar, so we headed in the following weekend to check it out. The record player was still in the cabinet and it was too short for our needs, so we were a bit dejected.... until.... I turned around and saw this little beauty on display.
Drew measured it, and it seemed like it would be the perfect fit - SOLD. We purchased it for $75 and said we'd be back to pick it up the following weekend.
The following weekend I ran out to RBX with my dad and we grabbed it, and I immediately got to work. I knew I wanted to use some of the leftover paint we had in the basement because we have A LOT. Between the paint the previous homeowners left, all the painting we had to do, and all of the paint samples we've gotten in the last three years, it seemed like a sin to buy MORE paint that would only get half used.
I decided to go with a grey theme, as we somehow had a lot of grey paint, so I washed down the cabinet, removed all of the hardware, and began painting. I likely should've done some sanding - but if you've seen our upstairs you know we're really good at starting a sanding project and not finishing it.... so I just went for it here.
I found a forest green for the back of the shelves that I thought would look nice but I didn't like how it turned out with our lime green walls (yes our dining room is lime green). Also, the wood back there is MDF so it didn't have a super clean and finished look. We took a trip to Lowes and I found some amazing wallpaper that I knew would look great on the back. Drew and I had a lot of fun measuring (twice) and cutting (once-ish) the wallpaper. Luckily this was a removable type, so it was pretty easy to get on the cabinet and still moveable if you messed up.
Scott Living Green Vinyl Ivy/Vines Self-Adhesive Peel and Stick Wallpaper - $39.99
While at Lowes I also grabbed new black hardware to match the kitchen hardware, and then I just had to make new/bigger holes in the doors to get it all secured. Overall this project cost us about $125 including the cost of the bar! Which is great considering the only one we had found new that we liked was $2,000+ at Crate and Barrel - haha! Let us know what you think of this #upcycle! And be sure to check out RBX for your own projects.
