Refurbishing an MDF sideboard, steampunk style

So there was this MDF, beat up sideboard left in the attic of our place from the previous owners. I wanted a sideboard, and I'm working on the whole steampunk thing, and I'm really cheap and didn't actually want to buy something, so I've been working on making it more victorian and steampunky. Joshua and Austin wrestled it down the stairs for me (quite a feat since the thing weighs a LOT), and there it was in its... potential glory.

You can only kind of see it in this picture, but the paper "veneer" covering on the glass door on the upper right is peeling badly, and the kickboard on the bottom is really badly damaged. I decided to cover both those pieces with leather.

Close up of the peeling

Close up of the damaged kickboard

Ignore the dates, they obviously mean nothing, other than "this is what happens when the kids play with the camera"

The back was cardboard and was really warped and fairly ugly. I took it off decided to cover it in fabric.

I was thinking about using black leather, but I decided it would be too much and went with a vegetable tanned leather that I'd antique and use walnut oil on for durability (I've got lots of leather just waiting to be used). I also had fabric in my bin o' fabric I had that I wanted to use for the back, but it was little too white, so I decided to dye it with tea.

 

I took off the glass door and all the hardware, and taped up the glass so that I could paint the part that I wasn't going to cover with leather; I also took the other doors and shelves out and took the top piece off the bottom.

Then it was spray-paintin' time.  Five cans of Rust-Oleum primer + paint 2x in black satin later....

I'm not Martha Stewart; I didn't do a perfect job. There are a few drippy portions and a couple of small missed spots, but it's much better.  Next, I used upholstery tacks to attach the leather to the kickboard and glued the fabric to the backing.

Duncan was pretty excited about this part.

I had to bring the mostly dry pieces inside because the weather was getting threatening, so I put those together, with Duncan's help. I still have to finish the glass door (tricky) and put the other doors back on, and I want to get this awesome octopus door knob for the glass door (it's Cthulhu's head!) and some new industrial-y looking handles in copper (or maybe make some out of small pipe fittings?) for the closing doors, but it still is looking good so far!

Duncan was so excited he wanted to take pictures of it too (and of me taking pictures of it)....

What do you think so for? I'm pretty stoked! (Total cost so far: about 10 bucks worth of paint)

To be continued!