The big brown beast

Here is the cabinet that I have been in the process of finishing for what seems like my whole life. I found this baby that was originally priced at $50 at a yard sale. When I went up to inspect, it had been marked down to $25. Then, the lady that was having the yard sale shouted out "everything out here is now half off of what it has on it..."....$12.50. I couldn't pass it up because I have been looking for some cheap furniture to go in our living room. I am definitely a minimalist- I can not stand clutter! But...I also feel like our living room is bare, so that's not great either. Anyhow, it originally had this ugly yellow paint on it, including on the hardware, like the hinges and the knobs. I thought I would try to sand it down and then stain it, but when the sanding got old after about 15 minutes, my neighbor suggested doing paint stripper. I tried. And tried, and tried, and tried. Finally, my friend Joel suggested to use some steel wool along with the stripper. I also discovered that following the directions on the stripper was not helping me, and to use the steel wool about 2-3 minutes after applying the stripper instead of waiting 20-30. Anyhoo....after several days of taking off paint, I thought I was finished. It looked about as good as I could get it. So, I bought the stain. I wiped off the cabinet to remove any extra stripper and sawdust, and started to stain. UGH!!!! It turned out the ugliest color I think I've ever seen and did not seem to be very even or wanting to stay on too well. Well, I had had it. I went back to the store, thinking "F@#! this staining crap" the whole way and bought some paint. It's high gloss, and I think it matches the wood on my furniture really close. I got some more hardware, put it back on, and finished it up today. I don't think I will ever try to stain anything else again. I am definitely not a furniture re-finisher! After all of this pain in the butt, the cabinet does look pretty good. Too bad I didn't just paint the stupid thing to begin with.