Out with the old . . .

My great-grandmother had a wardrobe that she gave to my grandfather. It sat in his trailer for who knows how many years. The doors stick a bit, its a little scratched from the years, but it's cedar-lined and has lots of possibilities:

The handles are a little outdated, but that's an easy fix. Staining is not an option because I am not crazy about the layout of the wood grain. I've thought about painting it a solid color like this: 

But it's a lot of surface to cover without a lot of details. I'm worried it will look boring or too much of some color. I love the hutch in this laundry room: 

But sadly, this blog was about laundry rooms not how to paint furniture. I could add some ornaments to make the largeness seem less so: 

But it looked too country for me. I found a wonderful article on color washing. Applying a base coat, then a mixture of 30% paint and 70% water. Making a light, hint of color. But I didn't save to blog and cannot find it again to save my life.  

Then, there's always the crackle paint option. But again that still seems like too big of a space to cover. Let me know if you have any ideas for me. And stay tuned for the updates.