DIY Storage Bench Using An Old Cabinet

I did attempt to anchor a floating bench to the wall as Plan A and it was failing miserably so I immediately had to start a Plan B. I love when Plan B turns out better than Plan A.

When we first moved in the previous owner had left these cabinets hung up in the office/laundry room.

I took them down and had them in the barn thinking I'd install them in there and just use them as extra storage. Fast forward to a few weeks ago my husband insisted I climb up our scary ladder in the barn and wander around in the barn attic space.

He knows my love of random pieces of old wood. Among the scrap pieces of wood (and probably mice and spiders) were just a few boards of what looked like old deck boards. Quite honestly, I have no idea what they were but they were in perfect condition and I knew I had to do something with them.

And the fact that three of those deck boards (let's call them that for now) combined was the same exact depth of that cabinet I had lying around in the barn was (in my world) considered magic. I had originally wanted to make a floating bench with these boards.

But instead I wanted to try something different

I first removed the knobs from the original cabinet and patched up those holes and painted the cabinet with Rustoleum Chalk Paint in Aged Gray and applied my dark wax after the paint had dried.

It wasn't until I had this bench almost done that I realized I wasn't loving the dark wax and applied a white wax over it to lighten it back up. I never make things simple.

I did the same method to my "faux" catalog drawers. To make the "drawers" I cut 8 even squares from a 1x6 board and painted those gray and applied a wax as well.

Once my cabinet and squares were dry I glued the squares onto the cabinet with some good old wood glue.

Let this concoction dry completely before you pick your cabinet up because if you don't your faux drawers will be sliding down the cabinet (ask me how I know that).

You can also attach card catalog hardware to your faux drawers at this point (I waited since I didn't have mine yet.)

I then placed my deck boards directly on top of my cabinet and from inside drilled screws up into the boards so they'd stay put.

Again-it's magic that these boards were a perfect fit. I did have to trim off a few inches from each board to fit in the space but it wasn't anything my saw couldn't handle.

Like I said before I did play around with the dark and white wax. I felt like the dark was looking too streaky for me. I wasn't using a wax brush and that could have been why. I did end up buying a and the white wax did go on smoother.

I added the card catalog hardware once Mr. USPS delivered them and stained a piece of paper with tea to make the labels (which they all ended up falling out...except for one...I'll give you three quarters if you can find it). This part is totally optional and probably a waste of time if I am being honest.

And you're done. It was so easy and fun to do and if you get around to looking on Pinterest there are ton of other ideas!

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