Fun Mini Filing Cabinet Makeover

Fun Mini Filing Cabinet Makeover

Lots of you have been asking about the filing cabinet featured in our last blog post and I promised a DIY tutorial so here it is! This is such an easy way of making a plain filing cabinet look fun which is perfect for studios and craft rooms where you want something less officey but still have documents to keep organised.

When I originally thought of giving our mini filing cabinet a makeover I'd thought about using decoupage but while browsing The Works the other day I came across these cute adhesive fabric packs which happened to be the perfect size and cheap too. I bought some hoping they would do the job with less mess and time than decoupage and they did!

You will need:

• A mini filing cabinet - ours was £25 from Ikea
• Adhesive fabrics - 2 packs of 4 pieces - a mixed pack of 4 was £2 in store but £3.99 online from The Works (I'm sure you could also use normal fabric or paper with glue but this is what I used and it was really easy)
• Printed labels for your drawers (or hand written if you like!)
• Scissors & a craft knife
• Screw driver
• Ruler & pen

Super easy DIY instructions:

1. Make sure your drawers are wiped clean from any dust etc so the adhesive fabric will stick smoothly and unscrew the handles.
2. Use your ruler & pen to measure out enough fabric to cover the drawer front and edges with about 1cm extra to tuck over. Cut out the fabric pieces.
3. Start from one side with a little bit peeled from the backing to keep in place and smooth over continuing to peel the backing as you move across to the other side (it's easier than it sounds but I wasn't able to photograph this stage as it involved both hands and David wasn't nearby at the time). Tuck around the edges and trim off any extra fabric.
4. Use a craft knife to make small crosses where the screw holes are and to carefully slit the fabric in the groove where the drawer label will go. This can then be tucked in neatly when you push your drawer label in.
5. Reattach the drawer handle and pop the label in. Step back and admire your pretty drawer then repeat for other drawers with whatever mix of fabrics you like. Don't worry about the order as you can faff about with this once you've finished them all and it's easier to see.

This corner of the studio always looked so plain to me before but now it's one of my favourites! The cute biscuit cushion is from Nikki McWilliams and we painted a secondhand chair with Autentico Rose chalk paint. A lovely lilac charity shop teapot filled with flowers on top of the mini filing cabinet finishes off the fun floral look. If you do decide to give your filing cabinet a makeover I'd love to see the results!