Hey Houzzers,

I need some help! I'm in the process of a bathroom renovation and am totally stumped on what to do with this built-in cabinet. I have a few things I'm debating with...

The first thing is strip & stain vs paint. There are about six layers of paint on this old thing and its taken me about three layers of stripper just to get through to the wood. I bought a small can of Minwax Jacobean stain to test since I'm trying to match the black/brown color from Ikea that the new vanity is in, but I'm wondering if it's even worth it! I would love to have the wood grain but may have to break down and paint.

My next debate is what to do inside. I'm taking out the drawers to create open shelving for the bottom. I can either keep the sizes or maybe try and change them up.

But I'm stumped on what to do up top. I could take the doors off (which I'm not a huge fan of) but there's just so much space to keep organized! So I've been looking at some different organization inserts (ikea) or maybe just completely create new shelving that actually makes sense. I was thinking of giving everything a fresh white inside as to not add to the dark in the bath, black stacked stone on the walls (Midnight Sky Shadowstone from Realstone Systems) and the black/brown vanity and most likely brown for the built-in.

Oh, and all of this on a budget :)

Phew, that was a lot! Any thoughts, advice, color suggestions, would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!