File Cabinet Makeover

May 17, 2012


Hi!  A few days ago I was a guest poster Applestone Drive where I shared about my metal file cabinet make-over.  Thank you Sara at Applestone Drive for the honor!

In case you missed it, here it is!

I’m all about bringing out of the box ideas to fruition, on the cheap!  


My most recent attempt at this came in the form of old run of the mill file cabinet that had been sitting in my hall closet, for um, ever!  At least 6 years, I kid you not.  Worst of all it was empty!  Sadly I stacked stuff on top, but kept nothing in it.  Not practical or smart considering that my son’s video games were in desperate need of a home.

If you’ve visited Chase the Star at anytime,  you’ll know I’m not one to leave well enough alone, like ever.  A black metal file cabinet would’ve fit in the playroom just fine.  But ‘just fine’ ain’t gonna cut it!

Take a look at what he looked like before:

 {Sad and lonely}

 

I don’t have too much experience working with metals so this was a new endeavor for me.  However, I knew that I wanted blue and I wanted chevron, and that would be easy with a couple of cans of spray paint and a lot of patience!


Luckily I had all of the materials I needed, just had to pick up a can of Rustoleum Ultra Cover in Lagoon and a skinny vanilla iced latte from Starbucks to get started.

 
After wiping the cabinet down with a damp cloth, and removing the drawers and the casters, I added a coat of the pretty blue (Lagoon) to the entire cabinet shell (making sure to to tape the inside rim). 

 

 

As that was drying I started the (tedious) task of taping out the chevron pattern on the drawers.  This was done free-hand which took a little longer, in retrospect, I would’ve printed out a pattern to follow.
After a couple of coats of white spray paint, I peeled off the tape and had an almost perfect chevron print!  ‘Almost’ works for me!
 
Painted the drawer pulls the same blue by screwing them in to an old (and overly painted on) piece of cardboard so they’d sit still!
 
 
 
Once everything was dry I added the casters and the drawer pulls back on and wound up with this ultra cool almost retro looking cabinet for the playroom!
 
 {Happy!}
 
 
 
Even after working on about a trillion spray paint projects, it never ceases to amaze me how it can easily transform almost anything! 
 
 

  http://www.chasethestar.net, metal file, file cabinet, chevron, teal, black and white, makeover, diy

 
 
If you happen to have an old metal cabinet, don’t get rid of it because it doesn’t fit in to your space, take a can of spray paint and make it special!
 
Love, Barbara
 
Linking up here!
Filed Under: Furniture Makeovers, Your Favorite Posts 74 Comments

Comments

  1. Our Pinteresting Family says:
    May 17, 2012 at 12:15 pm

    It turned out fantastic! Love the colors. Megan

    Reply
  2. Marilyn Clark says:
    May 18, 2012 at 11:58 am

    Love how it turned out…it’s now that punch of color piece for your room!

    Reply
  3. Our Delightful Home says:
    May 18, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    Amazing transformation! I would love for you to link up to my linky party via: http://ourdelightfulhome.blogspot.com/2012/05/live-linky-party-14.html

    Mrs. Delightful
    http://www.ourdelightfulhome.blogspot.com

    Reply
  4. Katie Goldsworthy says:
    May 18, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    Great makeover! This turned out awesome! I love the SBucks cup in the middle of the painting supplies! That would totally be me!

    –Katie
    @ Creatively Living

    Reply
  5. the cape on the corner says:
    May 18, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    what a seriously fun “after!” love it!

    Reply
  6. Hani@Craftionary says:
    May 18, 2012 at 3:19 pm

    wow.. Your chevron file cabinet is being loved by So Many people.. It’s been already pinned 70 times from my board.. :) Thanks for linking up!

    Reply
  7. Julie Marling says:
    May 18, 2012 at 7:28 pm

    That looks so great! I wish I could be so crafty! Found you from hop! Love for you to follow back when you can!

    http://naptimeshopper.blogspot.com

    Reply
  8. Brooke @ Inside-Out Design says:
    May 18, 2012 at 7:49 pm

    I love it! It’s so bright and fun now! You’ve got me eyeing my sad, beige file cabinet now….

    Reply
  9. Katherines Corner says:
    May 18, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    looks great. A can of paint and your imagination and taa daa!! Thank you for linking to the Thursday Favorite Things Hop. I appreciate your bloggy friendship xo

    Reply
  10. twelve-O-eight says:
    May 19, 2012 at 6:31 am

    Love this redo! You are very creative :) Tanya

    Reply
  11. Decorating Insanity says:
    May 19, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    Barbara. Love it!! Makes me regret not picking up a cheap old file cabinet at the thrift the other day. Thanks for linking up to Furniture Friday and if you ever want to guest post, let me know.

    mONICa

    Reply
  12. Vanessa says:
    May 19, 2012 at 3:29 pm

    Hi, Barbara

    I love the file cabinet. It looks great!

    Vanessa

    Reply
  13. Candy says:
    May 19, 2012 at 8:37 pm

    You’re soooo very creative. Love the file cabinets.

    Reply
  14. Sherry says:
    May 20, 2012 at 9:44 pm

    Beautiful transformation! I discovered you on Happy Hour Projects and I’m now following. I would love if you could follow back! Tx

    Reply
  15. PitterAndGlink says:
    May 20, 2012 at 10:38 pm

    I love this! Great job! :)

    Reply
  16. Sherry @ No Minimalist Here says:
    May 21, 2012 at 4:11 am

    Barbara, This is the cutest file cabinet…great job!

    Reply
  17. Tracy Jensen says:
    May 21, 2012 at 5:05 am

    New fan from the west coast hop…..LOVE this…I have a file cabinet that needs a makeover…THANK YOU!

    Tracy
    Dear Life from a mom of boys

    Reply
  18. Rebecca @ My Girlish Whims says:
    May 21, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    Love the color combo, so much more fun now!!

    PS – Thanks for linking up to the blog hop!

    Reply
  19. Sara says:
    May 22, 2012 at 3:27 am

    This is way cool! Would LOVE it if you would link this project up at my brand new Trendy Tuesday party going on right now!! http://www.sweetlittlegals.com/2012/05/trendy-tuesday-1.html

    Reply
  20. Jennie Larsen says:
    May 22, 2012 at 4:24 am

    LOVE LOVE LOVE AND DID I SAY LOVE? I shared this on my COM-FB page. winks, jen

    Reply
  21. Danielle Wagasky says:
    May 22, 2012 at 3:19 pm

    Hey lady! I just wanted to let you know I featured you on Blissful and Domestic today. Stop by and snag a button!

    Danielle @ Blissful and Domestic
    http://www.blissfulanddomestic.com/2012/05/lovely-features-4.html#more

    Reply
  22. Karla says:
    May 22, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    Woah! You did a great job with these. I love them!!!

    Thanks so much for stopping by my place. I’m following you too. :)

    Reply
  23. Paula says:
    May 22, 2012 at 9:24 pm

    What a difference a little paint makes. You took an ordinary object and made it extraordinary!

    Reply
  24. Meredith Hilton says:
    May 23, 2012 at 12:57 am

    This is SO on my list of projects! I’m so glad I got to see this! New follower!
    Mer @ http://ablessedandblissfullife.blogspot.com

    Reply
  25. Molly says:
    May 24, 2012 at 3:07 pm

    I LOVE this makeover! So much that I featured it today, go check it out and make sure you grab your “I’ve been featured” button :) Thanks for linking up to the Get Creative party!
    -Molly
    http://www.justalittlecreativity.com/2012/05/get-creative-party-features.html

    Reply
  26. Heather Kaluf says:
    May 26, 2012 at 10:06 pm

    Just wanted to let you know that I am featuring you today! Come on over and grab the feature button, its at the bottom of my blog :)
    xoxo
    Heather
    http://www.heatherlyloves.com/2012/05/sunday-round-up-11.html

    Reply
  27. Jacinda says:
    May 28, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    I love this! I actually have a big beat up filing cabinet sitting in my garage that I want to paint and you’ve shown me I CAN! Thanks for sharing!
    Jacinda
    http://www.yellowcloth.com

    Reply
  28. Joan@chocolateandmore says:
    May 28, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    Love it!!!!! Makes a cheap old metal cabinet look like a million bucks!

    Reply
  29. Stacey says:
    May 29, 2012 at 2:17 am

    Pretty colors and pretty chevron – love it!
    Thanks for linking up!
    Stacey of Embracing Change

    Reply
  30. Evelyn says:
    May 29, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    I love the chevron, your free hand is so much better than my stencils any day of the week. From boring to fun! Thank you for sharing on Freedom Fridays and hope you week is just going marvelous! See you on Friday (but I’ll be back before to see what you are making next:)

    Reply
  31. gail wilson says:
    May 30, 2012 at 1:02 am

    barbara–love your file cabinet makeover! the colors work great together.

    gail

    Reply
  32. Jennifer says:
    May 30, 2012 at 6:10 am

    Love it lady!! I am wanting a 4 drawer one and would love to make it over!! Great work!
    Thanks for sharing at Show & Share….featuring this in tomorrow’s party!

    Reply
  33. Stacey says:
    May 30, 2012 at 11:08 am

    Featured you this week! Yeah you!
    Come by and grab a button!
    Stacey of Embracing Change

    Reply
  34. Jalema says:
    August 8, 2012 at 8:07 am

    Great article about File Cabinet. I really like your blog very much and also share this article with my friends and keep it up

    Reply
  35. Rory Fugerson says:
    August 21, 2012 at 3:56 am

    Doing a makeover in your filing cabinets wouldn’t be that easy but with that kind of result in the end, you would really feel that all the things you did is worth it. Good Job!

    Reply
  36. Jelli says:
    October 24, 2012 at 1:47 am

    Barbara, this looks great! I don’t know if I could be patient enough to measure out the tape line placement to make it perfect, but I’d be up for the freehanding technique any time. What a great way to upstyle an ordinary file cabinet. Following you from CHQ.

    Reply
  37. Box Designers says:
    November 9, 2012 at 4:16 pm

    I recently used this site to get some designs. I was really impressed. I will definitely use them again.

    Reply
  38. Sarah @ An Inviting Home says:
    February 13, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    This is a REALLY fun idea! It looks great! My husband and I made a DIY desk using two filing cabinets (http://www.aninvitinghome.com/2013/01/a-diy-desk.html) and doing something like your idea to them would make it even snazzier. I’m going to pin it for others to see…fun!

    ~Sarah

    Reply
  39. Diana @ Project Inspire says:
    February 25, 2013 at 12:48 pm

    You are one talented girl! Looks great. :) XO

    Reply

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  1. Most Popular Projects and Blog Posts from your Favorite Crafters says:
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