cabinet - black, white, and a stencil

Introducing Mr. Before Picture.  He offers a firm handshake.

This was a beast to paint.  The fake wood, the bubbly top, it just wasn't very friendly to me.  After giving it a few coats and it still not looking good, and having the paint scratch just by thinking about touching it, I discovered the amazing ability of Wil-Bond (liguid sandpaper).  I applied that, and gave the whole thing another coat of paint.  MUCH BETTER!  It didn't take away all of the little blemishes, but so goes the life of refurbished furniture! 

I took off the hardware and spray painted them silver.  Then after going through my favorite blog on earth, BetterAfter, I got the idea to use my stencil for a little fun decor!  I condsidered finding my measuring tape to get the design just perfect, but then oh sheeesh I'll just eyeball it.   So I learned that with this stencil, eye balling works.  I learned on a previous piece of furniture that eye balling does NOT work with a plain checker pattern.  Nu - uh.