DIY Upgrade: File Cabinets

File cabinets are an unfortunate fact of life: by the time you hit your mid-twenties you’ve accumulated a sizable portion of your life on paper. From transcripts to manuscripts, recipes to medical records, vehicle registrations to credit card statements, that shit can’t just sit in a corner of your closet. It’s absurd to buy a new file cabinet, because we both know you’re gonna score that tan, banged up number off Craigslist for $30. Of course, now you’re stuck looking at a hideous piece of drab office-drone furniture from 1987.

Or, you know, not.

image courtesy of re-nest.com

If you’ve got some Modge Podge and wrapping paper, or some paint, you can upgrade that ugly utilitarian box pretty quickly. If you don’t really trust yourself with a paintbrush, using some contact paper or colored duct tape in a pattern, or, use those super-hip wall decals. All you’re really going to need to do is take apart the file cabinet, clean it, then go to town with your wallpaper/contact paper/spray paint/duct tape design. Wait for it to dry, then reassemble. Bonus idea: consider adding new drawer pulls.

image courtesy of omfgstyle.com

This example use a faux wood front to screw the draw pulls into.