Quilt Display Cabinet Made From An Old Gun Cabinet

Several months ago I fell in love with quilt cabinets that had previously been used as gun cabinets!

I have a lot of my grandmother’s and great grandmother’s old quilts that have been stored in a closet, never to be seen. I wanted a case where I could display them, so I searched online for ideas and found an old gun cabinet on Facebook Marketplace. I brought it home and began to transform it. I think it turned out perfect and I’ll show you how I did it!

Start With This

I first thing I did was to look around in antique stores and garage sales for old gun cabinets but the best place to look in my opinion is your local Facebook Marketplace.

I bought this from an older gentleman whom I met in the pouring down rain! What we will do for a craft project!

I took it home, cleaned it up, and gave it a good sanding. Now I will tell you that sanding is not my favorite part of any project. You can, of course, use a liquid sander and it would probably have worked out great but I chose to sand this particular piece just to be sure I got the results I wanted.

Once sanded, I spray painted it with an electric spray painter. If you don’t have one you can paint with a brush, no problem.

I recommend giving your project two coats of paint just to be sure you have good coverage. I used Valspar’s Indigo Cloth in an eggshell finish. You can also use chalk paint with a wax finish as well.

After letting it dry thoroughly for a couple of days, I then gave it a coat of glaze using black paint. I poured out about 2 cups of clear glaze and then just added in a small amount of black paint. I happened to have a small bottle of craft paint on hand and it worked perfectly. You will need to start out with a small amount of black and continue to pour and stir until you get the right color. As an example, I may have used between 1-2 tablespoons with 2 cups of glaze. It really is a personal preference.

I went over the cabinet with a paintbrush and glaze, making sure I got into every crack and crevice. I then wiped off the excess with a clean cloth leaving behind the dark glaze where I wanted it to show. I will mention that even though you may wipe off the glaze from a flat surface, it will still darken the tint of your original paint to some degree. This was exactly the look I was going for.