I bought this Mexican china cabinet for a song a couple of years ago, stripped the cheesy shiny varnish and finished it with several applications of linseed oil until it got the warm, rustic look I was going for. And who doesn't love the way linseed oil smells? or is that just me. . . ??

Anyway, I want to update it a little as we are moving to a new house (provided nothing catastrophic happens between now and the closing date!). I was thinking about replacing the glass panels with either seeded or bubbled glass, or some other glass that has obstructions or ripples in it. My "china" collection is really a mish-mosh of brightly painted pieces, Japanese-style "fish" bowls, chunky terra cotta plates and, well, you get the idea. I thought the distortions in the glass would allow some colors to show through without treating guests to the cacophony of styles in the cabinet.

On the other hand, I was reading some posts here about painting or wallpapering the insides of shelves and cabinets and was wondering if that might work here. The linseed oil finish would complicate painting, I know, but I thought it might be fun to paint a light or bright color in the back of the cabinet, leave the glass as is and just embrace the insanity of our china collection.

any ideas? I have to apologize for the photo - it's the only one I can find of the cabinet (and it's in a storage unit right now), so you can't see the entire shelf area, but you get the idea.