Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Ikea Cabinet Makeover.

Our office is currently a little lot on the bland side to say the least.  I am trying to decide on a paint color for the walls (leaning towards gray at this point), which will make a big difference.  But in the meantime, I decided to jazz up this boring Ikea cabinet. 

It went from this (seriously, could this picture be any more boring?)


To this!


Unlike the bathroom trellis wall, it was an easy project and took no time to complete!  The cabinet has glass front doors with panel inserts.  One side of the panel is white and the other is black.  I could have probably just painted directly on them, but they had a glossy finish and I was worried about paint adhering to them.  And I thought it may be a good idea to keep them on hand in case I later changed my mind.

So I went to the art supply store and picked up a couple of thin canvases -- not the ones that are stretched over frames.  For two canvases, it was about $14.00.  The nice thing about the canvas too is that it will be very easy to paint over the fretwork design if I ever want to change things up. 


Here's a shot to give you an idea of the thickness of the canvas.  We just used our mat cutter to cut them down to the right size.


The hardest part for me was figuring out the pattern measurements.  I spent quite a while growing increasingly frustrated that I couldn't figure it out.  It would have been easier if I could have just taped off the design itself and painted the remainder of the space the color.  But of course, I wanted the design itself to be painted. Justin was finally tired of listening to me complain nice enough to come over and offer his assistance.

In no time, he made his own graph paper and had a template drawn out.  Show off.



Once the template was cut out, I just traced it on the canvas.  I put a border of frog tape around the whole thing so the pattern wouldn't be right on the edge.   


Then I went around the pencil lines with the tape.  Once that was done, I took a kneaded eraser and went over the edge of the tape lines to create a good seal (and to clean up any pencil lines). 



To help ensure clean, crisp lines, I used white acrylic to paint over the edge of the tape.  That way if any of the paint were to seep under the tape, it would be white and unnoticeable.  (Thankfully the white paint I had on hand was an exact match to the canvas.) 

(for those of you who notice every detail in a picture, you may have spotted my newest craigslist find!)

After that dried, I did two coats of teal paint.


Then the fun part -- removing the tape!  I removed it while the top coat was still wet.  Thankfully, it needed only very minor touch ups. 


I was so excited to put those puppies in the cabinet.  What a difference! 


I love how such a simple change makes such a big (and fun) impact in our otherwise boring office.


I am still deciding what I want to put on top of the cabinet.  I am thinking some bins for mail sorting and maybe a fun lamp from HomeGoods.   Stay tuned for more office updates . . .

42 comments:

  1. GENIUS! Seriously. And way to go with the team work. I am so impressed with how that turned out.

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  2. So incredibly clever! Great tutorial. Well done and thanks for the play by play.

    Following you daily,
    Wendy
    at
    Simply Brookes:

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  3. Emily! This is so great! Best project I've seen in a while! Smart smart smart!!

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  4. Omg Emily, you did a great job!!!!

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  5. Emily, this is seriously amazing. I posted a serious paint/canvas FAIL on my blog today... and I think you may have just saved me with your advice on painting a white layer before the colored layer. Perfect timing. Thank you!

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  6. Holy WOW! I love this! :) You two did a fantastic job! I totally love my husband, but sometimes it drives me crazy when he can just swoop in and do what I'd been trying to do for hours. :) They just see things differently than we do.

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  7. Wow, what a difference! I love it!

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  8. Emily, that looks seriously incredible! I love it! Great color combo too!

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  9. This is AMAZING! Such a brilliant idea. You and hubby did a super job.

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  10. THAT was EASY?!?!?! if math and graphs are involved, it is not!! It looks so good I can't even tell you!!! And I was trying to sketch that exact pattern to see if I wanted it for Sloan's pelmet, and could not for the life of me figure it out!!!

    You ARE smart!!! It looks fab!

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  11. Holy crapola- that is genius! It's so gorgeous! I want to go buy me an ikea cabinet so I can do that to!

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  12. BRILLIANT!!! And my husband always figures this stuff out so easily when I can't..

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  13. WOW! Girl, you done it up right! Seriously genius. Love the pattern, love the idea. GENIUS!

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  14. Very cute Em! I love this project! It just really makes the piece. =)

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  15. this is wonderful, it looks so great i love the color

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  16. Okay, picking my jaw up off the floor to say Oh my gosh, so jealous of the gorgeous cabinets you made! They are so fun! I'm going to go get paint now...(c:

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  17. Wow, girl! It's awesome! You really figured out a great system here!

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  18. I'm so impressed! And really, when you mention what a "boring" room it is, what I see are tall baseboards with a nice cap, beautiful flooring installed on the diagonal, and nice thick door casings! The important stuff is fabulous, the rest will easily follow with your talent!
    Janell

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  19. awesome project!! so impressed. good work, emily :)

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  20. Emily, this is seriously one of my favorite projects I've seen this year! Your hubby is genius for figuring out that graph. I love the color you chose too! I want to feature it on my blog next week, okay??

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  21. Love, love, love this! A really fantastic makeover!

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  22. What a great way to spice up this cabinet. I love the design you came up with! Very striking.

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  23. Just found your blog and this DIY has simply blown me away! I love it and the tutorial was so great. thanks for sharing. I will following you now! M.

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  24. Just found your blog and this DIY has simply blown me away! I love it and the tutorial was so great. thanks for sharing. I will following you now! M.

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  25. INCREDIBLE!! I love it!!

    Emily Hewett
    A Well Dressed Home
    awelldressedhome.com/blog

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  26. seriously - AWESOME! this looks incredible! Great DIY makeover!

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  27. WOW! That looks absolutely fantastic! Such sharp lines, great work with the taping and design. Definitely meets your goal of adding some life to the cabinets.

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  28. This is beyond lovely!!! Thanks for sharing! I am definitely inspired.

    : )

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  29. This looks amazing! Thanks for the tutorial - what a great man you have on your hands :)

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  30. Hi Emily! I'm visiting from my dear friend Megan's site. Any friend of Megan is a friend of mine! I love the cabinet! The bold graphics make a stylish statement! Can't wait to view the rest of your site.

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  31. So cute-but girl vinyl stickers would have been so much easier. That looked hard!

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  32. Um, wow!? Love what you can do with painters tape!

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  33. That came out amazing! So crisp and clean...good job!

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  34. Seriously, I saw this ikeahack on Megan's blog and told myself "I have to go check out this girl's blog"...I hate it took me 10 years to find you again!!

    Loving your blog and taste, and this is a brilliant hack!

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  36. This is all kinds of awesome and the pictures are great. Very nice makeover.
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