I've seen quite a few really cute, vintage spice racks and cabinets on my Pinterest and Facebook Marketplace recently. I love them, but they always seemed to come with a pretty steep price tag. I was absolutely thrilled when I found a little cabinet at the thrift shop and discovered that the drawers were each tiny spice jars! I'd found my perfect spice cabinet for only $8!!
The cabinet was in excellent condition to start with, thankfully. Hand painted with the prettiest rooster detail. I loved the original look, but it definitely didn't fit the vibe of my kitchen. A paint job was a given, but how could I recreate the charm this little cabinet already had while getting it to fit my kitchen's style?
The more I looked at the rows and rows of little drawers, a familiar pattern popped into my head: the iconic, imperfect checkerboard Mackenzie-Childs is known for. Each drawer its own square on the board, neutral yet charming, and in line with colors and styles already present in my kitchen. It'd be perfect as long as I could pull it off!
I started by painting the entire piece white. I wasn't 100% sure on the details of my plan and needed some "blank space" to think through it visually. I landed on making each drawer a different color square and leaving the outside of the piece solid black or white, I'd choose when I got farther along.
Getting those subtle color variations Mackenzie-Childs is known for was particularly tricky because I wasn't able to remove the knobs on the drawers, but I just worked slowly with tiny brushes until I was happy with the look.
I loved how the cabinet looked once I'd finished all the drawers and I decided to shift from my original plan and add vertical stripes to the sides. Another notable Mackenzie-Childs trait is pattern mixing and I was inspired by a photo I'd seen on their site of mixed checkered and striped wallpaper.
I ended up painting the base black, the top white, and alternating the color of the knobs with the color of the drawers. I really love how they look like little pawns on a chessboard.
One final detail was painting the insides of the drawers alternating colors as well. The inside of the cabinet had been stained from use over the years so it needed to be freshened up and I thought continuing the checkered pattern was a fun way to do it.
I'm obsessed with how this little spice cabinet turned out! I've been in a bit of a creative slump lately, but bingeing an audio book and completely diving into this project really helped get me out of my rut and create something I love.
