Yup, I said it…friggin’ file cabinet. There are so many attractive, don’t-even-look-like-I-belong-
in-an-office options out there…but all of those come with a price tag I hate to even think about. Heck, even some of the not-so-attractive options can cost a fortune! But expensive or not, I knew we needed one for our home. The cheapo cabinet I made due with since I was a single gal was not only broken, but also wouldn’t provide the filing space we will need as our family {God willing} continues to grow in the future.So what was I to do? Simple...it’s something I had done a million times before. I became a Craigslist stalker {in a totally non-creepy, furniture-needing kind of way}. I scoured the ads daily to find a lateral file cabinet made of wood or wood laminate. These two qualities would help mask the “hi, I’m a file cabinet” appearance. This was important to me since we do not have a designated office space in our home. {We could make one of the guest rooms double as an office, but the truth is, we wouldn’t use it. We are more casual and tend to sit on the couch or at the dining table to get any necessary work done. Maybe when we finish our basement a million years from now, we can assign part of that space to be an office….but then again, maybe not. ;)}
Anywho, after months of searching, I finally stumbled upon a cabinet that fit all of my criteria, was within my budget and was only a couple miles from my house! Hallelujah! {Speaking of which, thank gosh it was so close to my house because it BARELY fit in the car, and if I had to get on some sort of highway versus the back roads I was taking, I’m pretty sure it would have fallen out of the trunk and smashed onto the pavement.}
Here is the boring and functional piece of furniture I purchased. I don’t have any photos of it together because the drawers were out when we got there {to make lifting and transporting easier}.
Once I got it home, it was time to sand, prime and paint. The sanding I did on the piece was very minimal. It was laminate, so I just wanted to rough up the surface a bit. Then a few days later I got around to priming the piece. Instead of using regular primer, I used my favorite Kilz spray paint primer. That dried quickly, but it still took me a couple more days to get around to painting the piece. Whoooops!
I decided it’d be fun {and economical} to use the leftover yellow paint I had from when I made over the Craigslist’ed nightstands in our guest bedroom. The happy yellow totally transformed the cabinet! Originally I thought I would switch out the hardware on the piece, but after it was painted, the original stuff looked perfect!
Anyone else have tackle a furniture makeover lately? I feel it’s becoming second nature for me to make over Craigslist finds! :)
