The Corner Cabinet

This was our first ever DIY project we did together. Like most folks out there we spent the first couple of year of our marriage living in a basement apartment and our furniture was quite uneventful. Almost everything we had was purchased used from a thrift store or had been given to us. We found this corner cabinet at a yard sale for super cheap. It was just raw pine wood at the time we bought it and looked a little flimsy but we saw hidden potential. We just went to Walmart and purchased the cheapest dark stain we could find. I dont remember the brand or anything but I'm sure any will do. We applied the stain as though it was paint because the pine didn't have any natural wood grains we wanted to expose. Normally with a nice piece of wood and stain you put the stain on and wipe off the excess. We did not wipe any off in hopes of having full coverage of the wood. Though not entirely intentional, we stained the piece a little unevenly but the effect was great. It made it look like a more solid hard wood piece and created a faux wood grain feel. After it was complete it almost seemed too nice to go with the rest of the furniture. This one piece changed our basement college apartment and gave it a small touch of class. Sorry that I don't have any 'before' pictures of it. If you noticed, we dont put anything on the lower shelves because the boys would destroy it.