Turning a Silverware Chest Into a Self Care Storage and Laptop Desk
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.
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.
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.
The brown finish had to go... pronto, pronto!
The velvet inserts had to go too!
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...
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.
The storage bottoms I wanted to make pretty so I chose to use this simple yet pretty floral wallpaper.
I just pressed it in place up against the sides to give me some creases to cut along for the drawer liner.
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.
Drawer liners completed, moving along to the drawer handles .
They were removed, cleaned and then given a couple of coats of this Krylon spray paint in a matte black finish.
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!
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 !
I mean how stinking cute are those hummingbirds?.
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!
I wiped off all the paint with a damp cloth but it still clung onto the edges...it formed just an outline. Now what?
I know, I'll replace the silhouette back onto the stencil by free hand, I did so using a multi surface folk art paint.
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.
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!
Enjoyed the project?
Suggested materials:
- Beauti- tone white Furniture Paint (Hardware Store)
- Recycled silverware Chest (Goodwill)
- Do What you Love Rub on Decal (Dollarstore)
- Hummingbird temporary Tattoos (Amazon)
- Temporary Tattoos Black FlORALS
- Wallpaper remnants (Leftovers)
- Krylon spray paint Matte black (Hardware Store)
- Farmhouse Stencil-Blessed (Amazon)
- Lovebirds Stencil (Cricut Made)
Comments
Join the conversation
-
Oem49500002 on Sep 28, 2021
Going to start looking for a silverware box for sure!!
-
-
Im832600209 on Sep 19, 2022
Great idea beautifully done!!! 💕💕💕💕
-
Skilled Thrifty Creatives on Sep 20, 2022
Thank you, its holding up great and best of all my goodies are concealed in a pretty box. I recently did another one with an ocean theme, a turquoise box with a sea turtle stencil!
-
-
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?