one mans trash is another womans treasure

I love the look of shabby chic however since i am married, i don't feel like the uber fem decor would be appropriate for our humble abode. Instead i have incorporated shabby chic furniture design with electic french country flair! I have been wanting a beautiful distressed china cabinet for quite sometime now. Devin didn't quite understand the obsession because well, we don't have any china! But being the loving, decorating challenged husband he is, he decided to let me have my way! woo hoo! After shopping around some stores i found most distressed china cabinets were hundreds if not thousands of dollars out of my price range. My girlfriend lyndsey had some furniture redone by a lady in mesa, after checking out her blog furniture facelift i was sold! So i started by seraching goodwill after goodwill, after no luck i resorted to craigslist. And just around the corner from our home a couple sold us this cabinet for $80
Next step: contact cherica at furniture facelift! After days of agony waiting for her reply back as to how much she would charge to shabby my cabinet up i had a reply! however much to my dismay cherica is no longer restoring furniture because she had to return to work because of the economy. Now what?! sure i could redo the cabinet myself.... but i live in an apartment. where would i do such a task? well we picked up a pair of sawhorses and transformed out patio into a workshop! My inspiration for the piece and actually my whole dining room was this plate from anthropologie
i love red green and yellow and strawberries will always remind devin and i of northern california late spring into summer, when you would go straight to the strawberry stands to buy fresh strawberries. So after some sanding, Jungle trail paint from home depot, and a crackle medium and english tea room paint from lowes, and lots of elbow grease and love this is what we have: