Okay, we’re rolling now!  So I’ve trimmed all the boards I needed to, I’ve checked that all eight units fit together properly and I’ve taken everything back apart and am ready to paint.

Since this is going to be such a large project, and I frequently use black acrylic paint in my crafting, I decided to buy a gallon of quality house paint in black.  This is SO much cheaper than purchasing those small bottles of craft paint and the house paint is way thicker – I really like how much better it covers paper and wood.  Don’t forget you can get house paint in quart size and, my favorite for regular sized projects, the “Color Sample” size at 7.25 oz.

For this project, there are 67 pieces of wood to paint and 78 drawers so out comes my handy-dandy little disposable roller.

I paint one side of all the pieces and set them down on long strips of waxed paper on the floor so as they’re drying I just keep a conveyor belt going – paint more, pick up dried pieces, paint other side, set on floor to dry – around and around.

And, finally, they are all painted.  Now I have stacks of cabinet pieces all over the place, it’s time to start gluing.  I like to use Elmer’s Wood Glue for gluing the cabinets together. I glue (separately) two of the SB2105s and once they’re dry then I glue those to each other by running a bead of glue all around each edge of the two inside/center boards.  I used long wood clamps to insure these would fit nicely as they dried.

I just continued to build in pairs and attached each pair to the next with wood glue and clamps – and my tower is going up and up.

I’ll do paint touch up on the main tower frame when I have the whole tower done and everything else finished.

For the drawer construction I prefer to use Aleen’s craft glue for gluing them.  Each drawer will require some touch up with the black paint and I use a small brush for this, but remember, the majority of the work is done by roller when the drawer is still flat.

Well, that really flew through a lot of tedious work!  It took me days to get all the wood and chipboard (drawers) painted.  I hope you’re enjoying the show so far.  Stay with me, part 4 will be coming soon and the really neat stuff – decorating the apothecary – is yet to come.

Craft On.