Brush Up On Your Dewey Decimals: A 'DIY' Faux Card Catalog Reveal

$50.00
8 Hours
Medium
After stumbling upon a FREE Craigslist chest of drawers I knew it would be the perfect piece to reclaim, restore and repurpose into a faux card catalog for my girlfriend, who has a passion for education, and an 'old soul' at heart.
Pictured is the free Craigslist chest of drawers, a sure beauty in it's natural state.
However, I was in repurposing mode, so I set out for my favorite local home improvement store (LOWE's ...Never Stop Improving) in search of the necessary material.
For this particular project I opted for the pre-sanded (5.0) mm Hardwood Plywood Utility Panel.
After determining the desired length and width (measuring twice and cutting a thousand times...trial and error), I sliced and diced (40) pieces for the 'drawers'.
I decided to go with leftover paint from years gone by, which happened to be the perfect green for this project...and it was free. I taped off and painted away.


As the paint was drying on the chest itself, I took out the drawers and began the task of aligning the 'drawer faces'. Using ripped down pieces of the (5.0) mm board (pictured in the forefront of the above picture) I placed them in between each 'drawer face' to create a uniform line, both vertically and horizontally. Once aligned I glued the 'drawer faces' in place using wood glue. After drying was completed I carefully taped off between the 'drawer faces' and painted each to match the sides of the chest.


After drying over night, and creating a hardware template (see photo of template, a must do to assure precise alignment of each pull) I was ready to install the hardware. For this project I chose to go with a (2.5") antique copper cabinet label holder with finger pull from D. Lawless Hardware (www.dlawlesshardware.com) and matching (5) x (5/8") oval head screws.
Pictured are the pre-painted 'drawer faces'.
Closing in on the completion of this project I decided to slightly distress the painted areas in order to give the piece that vintage look. I also personalized it with an 'image transfer' technique.
Using the 'stencil font' I printed it in mirror image. Flipping the paper over face down onto the chest itself, I then went over the back of the paper with pencil, and the image transferred to the chest as shown in the previous picture.
The completed project, a faux card catalog with the functionality of full drawers, staged with 'educational pieces' picked up at various yard sales and thrift stores along the way.


Thank you for following along, as we are 'Learning In The Journey™ Reclaimed. Restored. Repurposed.' one day at a time.
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