A linen closet update with a pop of color!

Here's a quick preview of where we end in order to keep us going as we delve through the gritty process to get from the "before" to the current "progress":

As you read in the upstairs to-do list post, you will know that we have a built-in linen closet in our second floor hallway. Obviously having a lot of storage is an excellent thing, but in a lot of ways the existing linen closet was a bit....boring. So we set off to change it. The first attempt at changing it (which isn't picture) was to strip the paint from the doors and drawers and put them back up with the natural finish. Luckily, my brother in law is currently going to school for furniture design and offered to try his hand at stripping them. We knew going into it that the whole idea might backfire and turns out- it did. Blah.
It turns out the doors and drawers are some bizarre combination of veneer, wood, and who knows what. They did not strip well and were not attractive. After hearing that, we moved on. We needed an alternative solution and in hindsight I think I actually like it more. Here was the original starting point:

After the doors and hardware were removed there was a combination of chipped white paint, unpainted plaster, weird-greenish wood, and unfinished wood. The pictures even make it look a lot more appealing than it was. On top of the lovely appearance, there was a subtle, stale odor. All of this needed to go.

So, two Sundays ago I began. The first step was to clear the cabinet which had a lot of odds and ends piled in it from unpacking. Then I went to work on chipping off any extra paint. The next step was to sand down those areas to prevent further chipping BUT something unexpected happened. As I was scraping the chipped areas, huge pieces started peeling off. I quickly realized that someone had painted OVER wallpaper. Yes, they wallpapers this lovely cabinet and rather than removing it, just painted right over it. Word to the wise- just do it right the first time because otherwise someone will have to undo your handy work later. It sucked.

I lucked out because the age of the wallpaper made the removal process a lot easier. The combination of rubbing a wet wash cloth across the shelf, scraping, and a lot of elbow grease turned out to be enough to eventually get the shelves back to stage zero. Once the paper was gone I lightly sanded each shelf, then cleaned each one thoroughly. While it was a lot of unexpected work, the finished results of this stage felt nice.

Once it looked like the picture above ^^, I then filled in a few of the gaps with putty, let that dry, and sanded those areas smooth. The next step was to prime the entire thing. I used Kilz2 Latex Primer and ended up layering two coats on the entire thing and three on the top portion that had been unpainted plaster/wood. After this, my Sunday project time came a close (baby- ya know), so it sat in this stage until this past weekend. Sometimes you have to use the time you have available even though it kills me to leave a project unfinished. I'm learning this is kind of the new normal now that I'm a mom. Asa's worth it though :).
Fast forward to yesterday. I did the same process as the primer (layering two coats on the entire thing and three on the top portion) with a latex trim paint in semi-gloss white. I will check on the brand later but it was leftover from painting the trim in the downstairs bathroom. Check out the results below.

After allowing the last coat of white paint to dry, the "fun" stage had finally arrived. I knew that adding a pop of color would be a really important factor when jazzing up this area of the house. I ended up using leftover paint from the kitchen (which I'll post more about soon)- Cooled Blue by Sherwin Williams. It really makes a pop statement-wouldn't you agree? I freehanded the top edge but used frog tap along the sides and bottom to get clean lines. I made sure to put a nice even coat and luckily the coverage was great after only one coat. I still have to style and accessorize it but still feel like it is a large enough improvement to share! Check out some of the latest stage below:

I've been pinning some ideas to my "best of bookcases" board on Pinterest and have hopes of working on it this evening after little man's bedtime. We'll see if that happens though. Thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying the progress as much as I am!