Another Finish: Filing Cabinet Makeover

 Good morning!  (It's 11am here)

I have another project that I just finished.  This one is for the office area of my room.  I took my ugly filing cabinet and made it pretty!

Here's the beige, boring, beat-up, before:

At this stage, I had already removed the handles and label frames.  If you look closely, you can see the little slider buttons are still there.  I didn't like them and didn't want to bother painting them so I removed them.

No matter how much I Googled it, I couldn't find directions on how to get rid of them so I just stared at them from the inside until I figured it out.  For my cabinet, you had to slide the button to the right to unlatch the drawer so you could open it.  I'll admit, my floors are uneven and slope slightly to the rear of the cabinet, so I don't have to worry about the drawers just coming open.

I didn't think to take photographs, so I'll try to explain it.  The button slid to the right to release a bracket on the inside left of the drawer.  The bracket and button were connected to the drawer with a spring.  Removing the spring was easy and I did that first.  The button was attached to the bracket with a little piece of metal that looked like this \.  I took a pair of vice grips, adjusted their jaws to a little smaller than that piece and clamped them around it.  A simple twist broke the piece and the button came off the front of the drawer.  All I had to do was then jockey the bracket out.  It was an L-shaped piece, so it just needed a little bit of maneuvering.

I used Krylon Chalky White paint to paint the beige away.  It took three coats.  I gave the handles and label frames a fresh coat of silver paint.  I used Rustoleum metallic silver.  I didn't paint the entire drawer fronts but did make sure to paint a border of at least 1" on all of them.

Instead of painting the drawer fronts (all white would have been too boring still), I decoupaged scrapbooking paper on them.  The drawers are 11.375" x 13.5" so regular 12" x 12" scrapbooking paper needed to be trimmed so I'd have an even border around the paper.

I haven't decoupaged anything in decades, so I started with the bottom drawer because it's the hardest to see closely - in case I messed it up.  :-)

I didn't have 4 sheets of identical paper that I liked, so I opted for 4 different, coordinating pieces.  While the whole room is white with dark blue-gray trim, the sewing area has an accent of Tahitian Breeze (sea-glass green).  The office area ended up with a purple accent.  That wasn't really planned, but I like it.  Because of that, I chose purple scrapbook papers.

Well, you've made it this far so here's the finished project:

I do still have to make labels for the drawers.  Maybe I'll do that today.  Basically everything in the cabinet is related to my genealogy research.  Photos, paternal side, maternal side, research/correspondence, etc.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Crafts of My Past & Present

I was just browsing the weekly sale at Herrschners, specifically the Hot Buys, and got a blast-from-the-past feeling.  I am amazed at how many of the different crafts that are on sale that I have tried.  I thought I'd share the crafts that I've done and see how many of you have at least attempted some of them. 

I've added a poll on the right side of the page.  I'd be thrilled to see your responses! 
Update:  For some reason, the poll never worked correctly so I removed it.

Here's my list:

• Latch Hook - never actually finished one in the past but just bought a small one that I'm going to do for DH for either his birthday or Christmas.
• Felt kits (not felted) - I made a felt Christmas ornament for DH a few years ago
• Sequin Art - I finished a horse head and one other though what it was escapes me now
• Mosaic Art - two Christmases ago, I did an eagle head for DH.  Last Christmas I bought him a kit to do for himself and he gave me a small one that he made for me.
• Doodle Art - this really brought back memories!  My sisters and I used to buy these at our local PayLess store (now Rite-Aid).  I remember doing the plain paper and the flocked (velvet) kind.
• Paint-by-Number - the only one that I know I did was of a puppy and kitten.  My grandmother had it  hanging at the end of the hall in her house.
• Stamped Cross Stitch/Stamped Embroidery - I've tried both of these.  To say that I stink at doing them would be an understatement.  I could never get the stitches to look neat.
• Plastic Canvas - I made a coaster set.  I have no idea where it went but I remember the coasters were bees.
• Découpage - had a kit when I was about 9.  My mom told me not to attempt it without help - I did anyway; made a mess; got in trouble; haven't attempted it since.
• Needlepoint - a couple of small ornaments.  Never had the urge to attempt anything larger though I do drool over some of the canvases - they are so lovely!
• Tatting - a couple of ornaments, a pair of earrings, and a bookmark.  I've mastered needle and shuttle tatting techniques but not well enough to be willing to do anything larger.
• Knitting - I can handle knit and purl but I'm not comfortable with it.  I did make a couple of scarves; a sweater; and an afghan
• Crochet - I can and will tackle anything crochet.  I used to love making afghans - now I'd much rather do thread crochet.  I've finished at least 40 afghans; a couple of sweaters; a few doilies; over 50 snowflakes (so far)
• Bobbin Lace - I bought the basic supplies and have the twist and cross movements down.
• Cross Stitch - I've been doing this for over 30 years and it's still my greatest passion!
• Quilting - I am self-taught.  I started my first quilt in 1995.  I've completed at least 9 quilts; have 1 that only needs binding; 1 being hand-quilted now; and at least 3 tops that need to be quilted.

Happy Stitching (or Crafting)

Stacy