A filing cabinet beautified.

I'm super excited to share this with you guys today!

We've needed a bigger filing cabinet for a while. I saw this one on craigslist and snagged it for $30 buckaroos. I was pretty stoked because I looked it up and it retails for $199 at Staples - pretty awesome deal right?

Well it's definitely functional, but not so aesthetically pleasing. So I took care of that with some wallpaper and a little Modge Podge!

I wanted to take pictures of my process but I needed two hands for most of it and Matt wasn't home while I worked on it. So I'll do my best to write out the steps I took in case any of you want to try it yourselves!

First, I took all the hardware off (duh). I'd give more details instructions but it will differ depending on how your filing cabinet is built. Then I measured the drawers and cut pieces of wallpaper about 1 inch larger than the drawer all the way around. I put Modge Podge right on the drawer with a foam brush and stuck the paper on using a credit card to smooth it and get rid of any bubbles. Once it dried, I used an exacto knife to cut off the excess. I just held the knife right up against the side of the drawer and slid it right down (or across for the top and bottom) and the edge was almost perfect. I thought this was easier than trying to cut a piece to the perfect size and center it perfectly, etc etc.

There's only one spot on the bottom right of the bottom drawer where it tugged a little resulting in an uneven edge, but this pattern is pretty forgiving so I'm okay with it! If your drawers can actually come out (mine don't), I would recommend laying them face down once they're dry and cutting the excess from behind. It's safer and will probably come out cleaner!

Then I just added another coat of Modge Podge and let it dry before adding on the new hardware. The absolutely gorgeous wallpaper was a FREE SAMPLE! I knew you could get free 4x6 wallpaper samples from big box stores, but I never knew higher end wallpaper distributors would send you LARGE samples for free or just the cost of shipping. It's a pretty awesome resource to know about! (And for those of you asking, the patterns in the Saturday Tidbits post were free wallpaper samples as well!) The new cup pulls cost a total of $8 at Home Depot and I had the Modge Podge on hand so this whole project cost me a whopping $38 bucks.

It's one of my favorite projects yet. I'd love to hear what you think!

Tomorrow I'll show you where this bad boy and my new desk are going to go!



I linked up to the Shabby Nest, Funky Junk Interiors and Chic on a Shoestring Budget!