Restoring a China Cabinet - Part 3

After scraping off any paint I could from the glass, I put the glass in the frame and glued on the last piece.

Then, it was time to fill in the gaps. I applied wood filler using my Built-In Putty Knife(tm). Painter's tape prevented the putty from sticking to the glass.

The longest part of the process was chiseling out the ares to fit the hinges. I held the door in place and marked where all the hinges were, then chiseled a dado across the edge of the door. Then, still using a chisel, I rounded the new edges to help the joint on the hinge fit better as well as aesthetics.

Then, I painted the door, added a knob that we bought, and hung the door on the original hinges. I didn't know to remove the painter's tape before the paint was finished drying, so some of the edges peeled off. My girlfriend had to touch it up.

I actually soaked the hinge screws in paint thinner beforehand to remove the white paint so we would be using the original hardware. Almost needless to say, my girlfriend wanted to change the hinges next.

The door didn't even need a latch once we were done. The door stayed in place well. When we moved, we moved to an apartment with a flat, level floor. Our old floor pitched and rolled like the ocean, and the angle the cabinet stood held the door shut.

We bought a magnetic latch for ~$1.50 serendipitously. Neither of us thought of this or knew where to buy it. We were looking for a hook and eyelet and stumbled upon this magnetic latch on our way out of the store.

We put on new hinges that went along with the door knob's style. We found a few that were large enough to cover the dadoes without being too large. We chose hinges that mount on the outside of the door this time. We like these more.

Our original intention was to put bright white LED strips inside the cabinet along to highlight whatever we put in it. If our displayed items were clear glass, this would have been nice, but it ultimately wasn't worth the effort.

I think the cabinet looks great and functions well, especially for being over a century old. Good craftsmanship lasts more than a lifetime.