Refinishing an old wall cupboard

I stumbled upon this cupboard at a garage sale last summer. It was in rough condition and needed a lot of TLC. I almost walked away but my daughter told me she thought I could make it look cute. I worked a deal with the owner and ended up getting the cupboard for $2.00 she had intentions of refinishing it herself as it was her deceased grandmothers but instead the cupboard sat in her basement for 5 years.

Using hot water and soap I scrubbed away at it. I then tried sanding it down, I tried stripping it and of course this piece fought back! I swear someone had painted it a thousand different times using a thousand different colors and not to mention that it had a horrible stale old bathroom grandma smell. I put a few nails and some glue into it as there were a few pieces of wood pulling away. But that old cupboard was still not wanting to change!

I saw so much potential in this cute cupboard but it wasn’t turning out how I wanted it to. I decided to try spray paint on it instead of normal paint and I am not sure that was the best choice. I didn’t use a primer which I learned is a BIG mistake because the smell inside the cupboard never really went away. I even put my perfume bottles inside of it after it was done and that didn’t help! It turned out okay but was definately a learning experience to #1 not use spray paint and #2 to use a primer!
Here is the finished piece.