DIY - Glossy Armoire

My mother has always been a fan of storage and organization, in her mind. In reality, our house never had anything to put other things into. I badly wanted a large armoire, but they were too expensive, and never my style.

A long long time ago my parents bought these large MDF garage cabinets. They are very simple, just a box with doors and shelves. I stole one and made the armoire I needed.  I've never had enough storage and hopefully this will allow for more organization. The armoire is extremely heavy and very large, it's almost to the ceiling. (It does have handles, they are just black and hard to see)

BEFORE

AFTER

CLOSEUP

As for the details...the door panel inserts are fabric I bought at Walmart maybe a year ago. I liked it so much but don't know how to sew, so I only bought a yard in hopes of finding something to do with it.

I took the doors off the hinges and worked on them flat on the ground. First I primed the entire thing, then painted it with a few layers of black paint. I cut the insert walmart fabric to fit. Then I diluted some Elmers Glue in water inside a big bowl and soaked all 4 panel pieces in the glue solution for a minute. When all the fabric had absorbed as much water and glue as it could, I squeezed it out and stretched it over each door panel. I smoothed it out with my finders and made sure there weren't any air bubbles. Then I just let them dry overnight. The next day the fabric was stuck to the doors and there was no need to varnish.

After that came all the moulding. That's when the cost rises. I think all of the moulding (from Home Depot), and there is a lot of moulding, cost me about $60. I painted most of the moulding a dark gray, only slightly lighter than the base black color, then I took sanding paper and scratched some of the paint off, to give it a more interesting look. The insert moulding I painted a light beige/yellow. All the moulding was screwed on with small screws.

The legs are the same ones I used here, on the Studded Ottomans http://gingerandgold.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/07/diy---studden-o.html. They are just fence post toppers (whatever those are called), also from Home Depot. I sanded them, stained them with an Ebony stain, and then varnished them 3 times with oil based varnish.

Attaching the legs was a bit of a pain. We had to flip the armoire upside down. The thing about these fence post toppers is that they come with a huge screw stuck in the middle of the thing, underneath. I think we ripped those out with pliers and used a nail gun with some very long nails. So far it's holding.

Then I varnished the whole thing (except for the fabric), and that's the end. Hope you like.

Comments

[Elizabeth @ Lovely Things]

Great project! Well done on making something attractive from an unpromising looking cupboard.