Armoire Make Over

So here she is, nothing special. Quite ugly and boring for my taste.

Inside it's quite basic with cheap backing, almost like cardboard. The sides had nice wood at least. First thing I did was removed the doors and handles, and gave it a good cleaning with Green Works cleaning spray. Then I quickly sanded it down with 150 grit sandpaper, gave it another quick wipe and it was ready for primer!

I didn't get a pic of after the primer but I used two coats. I then applied wallpaper to the back. I had gotten the paper for a great price like last year at Rona. It turned out great! I had to first brush on adhesive then apply the paper. I had also glued on a wood applique to the top, but then had to remove it as I didn't measure how it would fit with the doors back on and I also wanted to add crown molding. So, the lesson here is measure first!

I just sanded that area again to get off the glue and re primed.

For the doors I did the same thing, primed them twice. I made sure to prime the inside too, even though I was putting the paper in there too as I found out the hard way in another project. Depending on what paper or fabric you are using, the color can show through so always prime it just in case. As you can see, I had a helper with this portion of the job.....

I measured inside each cut out of the door and cut the paper a little bigger. I brushed the adhesive on only the top half of the inside, loosely lined up the paper then used my hand to smooth it down in the direction of the bottom half so any glue could ooze out. I then did the same with the bottom half, this time smoothing the paper in both directions towards the sides of the door. I then used my 23" trim guide (made for putting up against the trim to protect the wall when painting) to smooth out the bubbles. Once I was satisfied with the look, I used a utility knife with the trim guide to trim the excess paper. 

I added handles I picked up at Lee Valley and put the doors back on. 

Here is the finished inside! I had these legs from a couch that my daughter was taking to the dump, and just spray painted them white. I found another wood applique from Lee Valley, sprayed it white and glued it on. Adding on the crown molding really gave it the look I was going for but let me tell you.....not easy to figure out! Good thing it wasn't me that had to do it :)

Originally it had a wood bar for hanging but it was damaged so I just got a metal rod from Ikea and screwed in end caps to hold it. I left the wood on the sides as I think it adds a nice contrast.

Here she is! I absolutely love how it turned out! I have three armoires in my walk in closet that I have all redone and I really prefer the look to just having built in shelving.

Here is a side by side to show the difference. What do you all think?