Tortoise, not the Hare (unfortunately)

Ugh, why is progress so painful? Today was relatively pretty weather, but still on the chilly side. I spent most of it going outside, applying a coat of stripper to my almost finished filing cabinet, going back inside, and waiting for it to do its thing.

At 9:39pm, I'm still not finished with it. I'm hoping to finish the side I'm working on in a couple minutes, then flip it over, and keep going. Depending on how awake I feel once it's finished (and how cold it is outside), I may or may not start on the other one.*
*I did not even finish the original one. What with it dropping below freezing, I'm going to have to pick back up where I left off tomorrow once the sun has warmed everything up.

I had returned to my original thought of painting rather than staining the filing cabinets, but I cannot imagine painting over the woodgrain after all of this to get the other paint off. :sigh:
I'm googling filing cabinet images to come up with ideas, though we'll just have to see.

There's the idea of incorporating color of some sort - I love that deep teal cabinet here:

I'm kind of in love with this Minwax color. It would incorporate both the bold color that I've been liking lately, as well as the wood grain that I've labored so hard to uncover. Plus, it would be beautiful with my silver hardware, doncha think?

There are also lots of cute ideas to incorporate paper or fabric onto the surface of the cabinet. If I did this, I think I'd put it on the side of the cabinet, but am still undecided:

I'll have some fabric left over from the canvas project you can see on the wall in the dining room here. I'm hoping to actually paint on that canvas once we're settled in our new place.
I like the color a lot, and it would be cute cut into sections for panels on the side:



There are also actually a lot of really cool filing cabinet hardware pieces to consider. My favorite one incorporates both the card holder and drawer pull. I'm just not quite sure how that would look on my specific cabinets:



There's also the option of picking out a decorative card holder, and keeping my current basic drawer pull:



Or, keep the existing card holders, and find new, decorative drawer pulls - look at this one!:

I hate to say it, but I may just have to wait until we actually move into our house to finish out these filing cabinets. I want them in my art room, and I am pretty sure I want them in the closet, like I mentioned here, but it's hard to know exactly how my art room is going to come together, what colors I'll use, etc.

I guess tomorrow, I'll keep stripping them down, then move on to the nightstand (and maybe the mirror, if I'm lucky enough!), then clean the filing cabinets up and set them aside for the time being. :sigh: I hate being practical.