How do you dress up an old metal filing cabinet?
by
Linda
I have an old sturdy tall filing cabinet but it looks awful! I would like it to fit into regular furnishing but can not quite figure out how? I am not into the painted aged look of chaulk paint.
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I once had that very industrial looking metal file cabinet that was in a visible part of our house, so I used 2 colors of brown and grain painted it. It was a fun, fairly easy project. It was many years ago... way before blogging became a thing, so I don't have any pics or tutorial on it. However, here is a link for a graining tool like the one I used. The way I did it is I first painted on the base color a lighter brown, (be sure to use a good bonding primer, like this one coat first, so all your hard work doesn't peel off the prefinished cabinet!) Then with the darker brown and a little glaze added to it paint over the dried coat of light brown. Working in small areas so the dark brown paint doesn't dry too quickly, go over it with the graining tool, rocking back and forth to create the 'grain' pattern. It's very easy and fun!
Here is wehat Hometalkers have done! Scads of creative ideas!
https://www.hometalk.com/search/posts?filter=File%20cabinet
Hi Linda, you could spray paint the drawers in the color of your choice and then do the rest in contact paper. They make really pretty designs that you can find online that will coodinate with the color you pick.