**August 29, 2018 Update**

The printing on the right side of the glass was just painted on so I removed it using fingernail polish remover. I cut the new  “Corley House” stencils using my Cameo Silhouette. I put it on both doors, now they match and look great! (I had a little trouble with the smaller “established” letters, but heck, it’s rustic!)

Do you have a Hobby Lobby in your town? We have two within ten miles of each other. They have a tremendously huge selection of just about everything you would want and the music they play is great too, soothing. Hobby Lobby is  a Christian owned company and is closed on Sunday. I understand that and respect that, but boy does it sometimes throw a kink in my plans.

I go in there quite often, but I have to confess, I never buy anything unless it’s on sale. And just about every department is on sale about every other week. I’ve bought many things where I’ve had to come back the next week because it wasn’t on sale on my first excursion and their sales are usually 50% off. As you walk in the door, they display their furniture and the sign always reads “30% off everyday”. But even at 30%, I feel their furniture is still overpriced and they do not reduce their furniture any more than that.

I can’t remember the reason I went to Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago but as I was walking through the store in the furniture aisle (I think I may have actually been looking for a cabinet or something), I saw this pie safe (and I didn’t know at the time that’s what they called this cabinet) with a clearance sign on it. I immediately loved it!

The original price was $227 and it was marked down to $70 because it was missing the left hand door. I stood and contemplated it for just a short period of time and knew that even with the missing door, it was exactly what I was looking for, and it matched a lot of the other pieces in my house. (If you’re a voyeur like me, you looking at the photographs…that’s my husband and my wedding picture and my grandkids). This piece worked perfectly for storage of my DVDs and photo books.

I thought for  a while if I was going to try and make a door for it with my awesome carpentry skills—not, until a eureka moment one night lying in bed. My brother owns a frame shop, The Great Frame Up–Webster Groves, and what is this door other than a frame with glass?! I contacted him and asked him if he would be able to do something like this and what he thought the cost would be. He said if he used some scrap frame, the cost would be next to nothing. So, I sent him the measurements, he sent back what he had and we were off!

I picked up the frame last week and it fit perfectly! (And if you noticed, the photos have changed—our vacation photo from Bridal Cave, Camdenton, Missouri, and my son’s wedding picture.)

I began my renovation by sanding the frame down 

and repainting it. It just so happened that the paint I had used on my kitchen cabinets was an almost exact match for the paint on this piece! I measured the hinge locations and put the hinges on the frame, and….it didn’t fit. How did that happen? It fit before, then I had noticed on the installed door the hinges were inset. So out came my dremel and I had to cut out the hinges. After rehanging the door, I marked and drilled holes for the hardware. But here’s another lesson I learned. Never drill the holes until you buy the handles! The handle they used on this piece measured 3 3/4″ and must not be a standard size because I could find 3″, 3 1/2″ and 4″, but no 3 3/4″. I settled for a 3 1/2″ from Hobby Lobby (on sale, of course) but had to redrill the bottom holes. They will have to be puttied, sanded and repainted.

I am so pleased with how this turned out! I still need to distress and “dirty-up” the paint a little.  I haven’t decided if I should leave the doors as they are, put wording on the glass to resemble the other one, or replace the glass with the wording with clear glass. What do you think? My husband wants me to try and match the wording using my Silhouette Cameo, but I’m thinking it would be too busy. (And once again, if you’re like me, you’ve noticed the left handle is about 1/4″  lower than the right handle, why? I don’t know.)