Turning a Silverware Chest Into a Self Care Storage and Laptop Desk

9 Materials
$20
5 Hours
Easy

Everyone loves a good makeover don't they? I do! Okay if you do too please have a look at how I swapped a silverware chest into a personal self care chest! What? Why? How? I'll take you through the process, it's a little long but super easy and here's a peek at how it'll look in the end.

Journaling Chest

Sitting next to my chair waiting for me to sit and read, write or just doodle with the supplies that are stored within it. An added bonus is that it becomes the perfect lap table for me to use it as a work surface as well! Let's go back to the beginning now, to how it looked way before.

Silverware Chest

Just your regular, typical, boring, brown silverware chest with the velvety insides. It was in great condition except that I didn't want to store silverware in it, I wasn't sure what I'd use it as but I was sure of something.

Sanding

The brown finish had to go... pronto, pronto!

Scraping

The velvet inserts had to go too!

Down to Bare &Bones

Ok, looking good now at this stage but still had no idea what the final look would be or the use it would have so I sat on it for a bit. Over a month went by and I decided that...

White Cabinet Paint

I would paint it all white, it took a few coats of what was sold as a furniture/cabinet paint. Sadly I was all out of my go-to white chalk paint so this was the next best thing.

Wallpaper Chosen

The storage bottoms I wanted to make pretty so I chose to use this simple yet pretty floral wallpaper.

Measure and fold wallpaper

I just pressed it in place up against the sides to give me some creases to cut along for the drawer liner.

Adhering Wallpaper

Once I had a great fit I removed the paper from the drawers nd spritzed the wooden bottom to lay the paper onto. This gave me just enough tackiness for the wallpaper to adhere well.

Drawers Lined

Drawer liners completed, moving along to the drawer handles .

Black Matte Spray Paint

They were removed, cleaned and then given a couple of coats of this Krylon spray paint in a matte black finish.

Word Decal

The inside lid as I opened it I wanted it to be inspirational, motivating and joyful. I chose this wall decal that I picked up at the dollar store, it would be perfect for this! I applied these before but if you haven't the instructions are on the package and they aren't complicated to use.

I had to make the wording pretty so I pulled out the stencils and other things that I had on hand and I realized that all of the temporary tattoos I had would look great!

Inspirational Lid

My loves all in one place birds, blossoms and butterflies, I can't help but smile as I open the lid on this chest now !

Beautiful Hummingbirds

I mean how stinking cute are those hummingbirds?.

Sponging on Stencil

For the top lid I wanted to keep with the same theme so I used this homemade stencil. I made a big boo-boo when painting the top...I used a damp sponge, what happens when you squeeze a damp sponge? It leaks water and water added to paint thins it and makes it runny therefore it seeped underneath the stencil and ruined the look! Ugggh!

Bird Silhouette Flopped

I wiped off all the paint with a damp cloth but it still clung onto the edges...it formed just an outline. Now what?

Painting SILHOUETTE

I know, I'll replace the silhouette back onto the stencil by free hand, I did so using a multi surface folk art paint.

Finished Look Outside

Here's the completed top and I chose gray to do the outline so it wasn't going to show up as stark as the black.

Finished Look Inside

Here's the final view of it filled with the items I wanted to include in it, my journaling notebook, pens and reading glasses. The bottom drawer holds an adult Fall coloring book and some crayons. I have my personal bible and reading material that could also be an option for some others. That's what makes this so great, it can be made so personalized!

Before and after...no contest! Thanks for sticking through to the end and by the way I have another one of these to repurpose yet. Please pop back often to see what in the world I'll come up with next!

Suggested materials:
  • Beauti- tone white Furniture Paint   (Hardware Store)
  • Recycled silverware Chest   (Goodwill)
  • Do What you Love Rub on Decal   (Dollarstore)
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