I have a love for furniture pieces that have a lot of drawers, cubbies and/or storage. Not only am I always searching for pieces that will add more storage in our storage-lacking home, but I love the look of many drawers or cubbies on a piece of furniture. My latest project had to do with a tall cabinet pulled out from an old kitchen in a house. I laughed when I saw it in the thrift store because the person that dropped it off even left the tall piece of wood from the wall it was on the back.
To be honest, I didn’t even notice that at first. I saw all the drawers from a distance and hurried right over to it. It was part of a built-in because there were no sides on the back or the right side.
Again, that wasn’t a big deal either because I saw all the drawers on the front. The fact that one of the legs was shorter than the others didn’t even make me think twice. There was no question, this piece had to come home with me.
If you follow me on Instagram (and if you aren’t, what are you thinking? HAHA! Just kidding. But, I would love for you follow me there because I share a lot of behind the scenes of these projects and our life behind the blog over there), you saw this project in action. It was a long process to get this where it is now, but it was a lot of fun. Each project I do, I learn something new and sharing those lessons is one of my favorite things about this job.
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Supplies Used In This Tall Cabinet Makeover:
Thin Plywood
Scrap Wood
To make this tall cabinet functional for office storage, Matt removed the tall board that was on the back. Then, he cut thin plywood to fit the side and back. Last, he cut the legs down and built a “base” at the bottom of the cabinet so it was even on all sides.
Now, it was my turn to come in and make this tall cabinet beautiful again.
There was so much paint on the cabinet that I didn’t want to paint over it. I wanted to get to the raw wood to see what was underneath. Once I got a glimpse of the wood, I stripped all the paint off the tall cabinet. Now, if you think that stripping a piece of furniture is hard, you have never tried the HomeRight Heat Gun. This tool is a game-changer when it comes to removed finishes from furniture. I was so amazed at how it was working on this piece, I did a Facebook live video to show it off while we were working on it. Here is that short video:
The heat gun took the paint off this piece like it was nothing.
Once I got the paint off the piece, I used my orbital sander and SandNets to sand the entire piece. I was able to get the drawers down to raw wood so I stained them Dark Walnut. Since we had to add thin plywood to some of this tall cabinet, I knew the finish would not come out the same if I stained it all. So, I painted the outer shell of the cabinet in “Evergreen” from Dixie Belle Paint. Once it was dry, I went over it with dark wax to deepen the green color.
The hardware was my favorite part. I knew I wanted pulls, but to make it great for office storage, I wanted to add labels too. I found the perfect option HERE!
They are a bronze color and really make this tall cabinet look amazing. The price for this hardware was amazing and I still have some left over for another project.
This project took me a lot longer than other projects, but it was a fun process to take it from what it was to this amazing storage for any office or any room for that matter.
Right after I got this done, I found a beautiful cabinet that was also from an old kitchen. I think I am going to sell this one and make room for the other cabinet in my office if we have room. We are adding new laminate flooring in the office soon as well. I spend a lot of time in my office so I want it to be functional and pretty.
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If you liked this tall cabinet transformation, you will also love these makeovers:
Bedroom Chest Makeover With Paint, Sandpaper & The Best Paint Brush
hi lindsay,
this looks great! love it! laura
Thank you Laura!