Give Your Old Metal File Cabinet a Makeover

It seems like everyone I know owns a big, old, not-very-pretty file cabinet. A piece they inherited from an office job or from Mom's house or that they picked up at a garage sale.

If you own one and it's in need of a facelift, then you're in luck. I recently spotted this fun, inexpensive (only $20!) DIY for a filing cabinet by Jackie Sarager and asked her to share the how-to.

Click through to see the steps.

1) Prep.
Dust and clean your filing cabinet and take out the drawers. Take off the drawer handles and drawer label holders. (If you can, remove the lock — but if it can't be removed, don't stress.)

2) Spray paint.
You'll need two cans of primer and two cans of paint — both should be products made for metal. Use the primer first. Do two coats, 15 minutes apart. Let it dry for 24 hours, then put on two coats of the colored spray paint.

3) Vinyl.
Use "stripes" available from Wall Pops (you can also find these at Target). Each drawer will have two horizontal rows of vinyl. Line the top row up so it sits just on top of the lock, then wrap the edges around. (It doesn't have to match perfectly around the sides because once you close the drawer, it doesn't even show.)

For the bottom row of vinyl, make sure to align the pattern, then cut a small square out for the lock, slide the vinyl in place, and stick it down.

4) Finish.
Reattach the hardware and put the drawers back in the cabinet. Done!

Isn't that a cute (and cheap!) remake? With all the vinyl patterns available these days — even custom options — the possibilities are endless. Maybe you could even turn your drawer fronts into whiteboards or chalkboards. Fun!