1956 Record Player Cabinet

I have a little corner in my family room that houses a couple leather boxes full of toys.  I try to have balls, trucks, coloring books, cars, dolls, and stuff for the nieces and nephews. It was looking pretty sorry and on top of it all the boxes were no longer closing. 

I've had the idea to find a little cabinet to house said random toys.  On Monday morning, I decided to check Craigslist and found kind of what I was looking for.  I really want it to have doors that open, but I figured anything was better than those leather boxes right now.  I waited and waited until yesterday and finally sent the guy a text.  He delivered it the same afternoon. 

 I hated that little patch of fabric, but as I looked around the cabinet, I found a Magnavox sticker and a stamp saying 1956.  The top flips open which I kind of like, but wonder what I will be able to keep up there.  I guess the crusty, smelly fabric had something to do with speakers...I guess.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, I tried taking out a bunch of screws on the inside and no luck.  So I just ripped, tore, bladed it out.  There was some pretty nasty dust flying all over the place.

The top of the cabinet seemed a little dry and had some white paint spots.

I used Howard Restor-a Finish and Howard Feed-n-Wax.  I vacummed it up and used a disinfectant spray to clean the drawers.  On the panel where the fabric was, it darkened it up to an expresso finish.  It's a particle board, so it's a temporary fix. I don't mind the dark color as all our finishes in our family room are pretty dark.

 Here's the top.

 Now to get rid of those wood blocks and style it a bit. 

I'm liking my temporary cabinet. It's already full of toys.  Let's see how it goes when the kids come over.