Filing Cabinet upgrade

 We had a LARGE metal filing cabinet that was that boring filing cabinet color, covered in stickers and dings. it needed HELP badly to look decent. First step was getting all the stickers off I found olive oil and rubbing alcohol helpful with that. I saw this metal border and decided to give it a try. It actually does look nice not sure I would do it again though, the metal border is sharp I sliced my finger with it and I had to get creative clamping it long enough for it to dry. I used Gorilla Glue to adhere the metal border to the filing cabinet. And it's a two person job at least to get it started. Big thanks to my friend Tammy for  lending a hand.

 I selected these flower knobs and found glitter paint to match.

 The metal border was probably the most time consuming part.

 I had to do one section let it dry and then do another section.

 I found a nice teal. Krylon® ColorMaster™ Matte Paint & Primer Color Surf to paint the entire filing cabinet. The drawers got special treatment, after painting them Surf I added a layer of  Krylon Glitter Blast Diamond Dust. I loved the result and if it hadn't been for all the holes from the handles, lock and card holder I would have left it at that. While I did use metal filer in the holes (very messy) I couldn't manage a smooth surface. 

 My original plan was to put wallpaper on the drawers. I had seen it done on Pinterest but alas wallpaper has gone the way of the Dodo Bird and seems to be extinct. Instead I used craft paper but I couldn't find any that would cover the entire drawer and unlike wallpaper that you could have placed side by side it doesn't line up. Hence the paint job. I know other people would have measured, but I gave up on trying to follow the directions to use math to center the paper and just eyeballed it. I briefly considered using shelf paper but was afraid it would prove to thin to hold up well. Also not a great selection of colors with shelf paper. This probably turned out to to be my favorite one as it has Teal to match the file cabinet and Dusty Lilac to match the walls in the Home Office/Study.

The other paper I found has a nice mixture of Dusty Lilac, Pink, Peach, Maroon and Yellow flowers.

The side of the file cabinet painted Surf.

The drawer just painted Surf with the Diamond Dust Overlay I left one of the original handle holes uncovered in order to install my pulls. You can see the indentions where the others were.

I used decoupage glue to put the craft paper on the drawers then I applied a coat of Krylon® Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze

It was beginning to get hot here so I did a lot of the drawer work out on my porch instead of in the garage. Fenris was tasked with keeping Yin away from the decoupage glue (who knew cats were glue addicts).

Since I applied the paper by eyeballing it, it was important to make sure it all lined up.

Once the Glaze had been applied it was time to put the hardwear on and reassemble the drawers.

I choose to do the pulls in a staggered pattern.

And this is the finished product.