Today, I have a quick and simple little project that will turn your functional filing cabinet into a modern conversational piece. I was tired of the clunky metal object mocking me from the rest of my very ‘cool’ office. I was inspired by something similar in Ready Made magazine and just had to try it on my own, of course putting my own little spin on it.
What you will need:
Filing Cabinet-I picked mine up from craigslist for $15
Contact Paper-I chose a wood grain birch (found at Lowe’s)
2’ or 4’ level
Exacto Knife/Scissors
Pencil
Using your level, draw a straight line across the middle of your filing cabinet. This will be the end point for your contact paper. I chose to put the line about a third of the way down of the filing cabinet, instead of a predictable half-way mark, just to make things interesting. I don’t like to be predictable…
(Picture #4)
Using your level, draw lines at 3”, 2” and 1” of thickness onto the contact paper to make the stripes. The angle you choose to have your contact paper at on the filing cabinet and the depth of your cabinet will dictate how long your strips need to be. Cut your differing width of stripes from the contact paper, overcompensating for the length.
I temporarily taped all of my stripes to the side of the filing cabinet, and adjusted them until I liked the look of them, before permanently adhering them to the cabinet. I have learned to do this the hard way. Let’s just say it is very difficult to remove contact paper from anything. Next, I drew little ‘tick’ marks onto the filing cabinet, notating where each stripe went, so I would remember in what order to adhere them to the cabinet.
Using a level, draw a line across the bottom of your taped contact paper stripes that coincides with the line you had originally drawn on the actual filing cabinet. This will
make the bottom angle on your stripes. Remove your stripes and cut the tips off with your exacto knife or a pair of scissors.
Peel off the backing from the contact paper and begin placing your stripes onto the filing cabinet, following your earlier notations. Smooth out the bubbles as you go.
Use your exacto knife to cut the top of your stripe off, leaving about an 1/8” to wrap around to the other side.
Repeat this process around the entire filing cabinet. If you have recessed pulls like I did, cut your stripes extra long in order to tuck the contact paper up and around your pulls. When placing the stripes on the drawers, cut them extra long in order to wrap around the edges of each drawer.
Now you have a ‘very cool’ filing cabinet! No more mocking us, Mr. Clunky Filing Cabinet!
Come and visit me, Rebekah, at Potholes & Pantyhose to see more of my Arts & Crap projects!
Thanks Tatertots & Jello for having me today!
it starts at 10 PM.
Happy Friday!
XOXO
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I love how you transformed that filing cabinet! I covered my filing cabinet in woodgrain contact paper as well ( http://31diy.blogspot.com/ ), but I didn't create a cool pattern like you did. 🙂
That is freakin fantastic…LOVE it!
~Amanda
How neat!
That is just the coolest! Thank you for sharing and guest posting.
Blessings, ~Melissa 🙂
That is so awesome! I would have NEVER thought of that!
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shilohsjunktofunk.blogspot.com
Wooooohooooo, Rebekah, that looks cool! And congrats on the guest blog! You already know I love your stuff.
Neat guest post. Love the dressed up filing cabinet. They can be so ugly, but this is cool!
EEK! I LOVE this!! Fab idea! Making my wheels turn here! What a FUN guest bogger too!
xo Molly
What a great idea. I may have to make one of these for my home office!
What a fun project – I will have to bookmark this idea just in case we ever drag our monster out of the closet!
Chelsea
That a very cool filing cabinet! If mine wasn't hidden away in closet, I might think about doing something like that to it!
That definitely makes the boring filing cabinet into a very fun piece.
Ruth
Very cool. I actually thought it was painted that way in the first picture.