Retro cabinet DIY

6:00 PM Unknown 0 Comments

My goal is to have a vintage/retro house and I try lots of different things to really give it that feel. But first let me explain the difference between retro and vintage. These terms get mixed up a lot but there is a difference. 

Retro is used for things that are brand new but have that vibe from the '20s - '80s stuff. It's designed to look old but is isn't old. Retro things and furniture are awesome because it's a good way to buy furniture and other things without having to worry about it's going to hold up or how long it's going to last when being used. 

Vintage is the real deal. It's the term being used for furniture, clothes, kitchen utensils from the actual '20s - '80s. It's most of the time quite hard to find, rusty and expensive. I do love these items as well. Especially the furniture and some kitchen utensils. 

I found this cute wooden retro cabinet in a store for about €17 and I couldn't resist to bring it home. It's not big but the thing that bothered me the most about it was the color. I love the white but the wood just wasn't my thing. It didn't really fit the other wooden cabinets that I already have in my kitchen but still bought it with the idea of painting it. 

What do you need to make this boring wooden cabinet fit into your house?

Cats were not included with this cabinet ;)

- The cabinet itself. Broken apart into as many pieces as possible. I screwed off the legs and removed the drawers. I couldn't remove the handles. The screw on the inside was just for show.

- Cloth and plastic bags to protect your floor. I have a wooden floor so I had to be really careful. 

- Enamel paint for wood. 

- A paint roller

- Two paint brushes

- A container

- Paper towels

- Green rough sponge

- Painters tape

To start off place the plastic bags and cloth on the floor and place the element of the cabinet on them. 

Get your painters tape and start taping off all the side that you don't want paint on. Watch out though there is no guarantee that there won't be any paint on after all.. 

After everything is taped, open the paint cans, make sure you choose a kind of paint that is fit for wood. I choose petrol blue and white for this cabinet since it's going to stand in our living room and our sofa is also petrol blue. It already went horrible wrong when opening the cans since I put to much force on it and paint already went everywhere.. (luckily I covered my white table with plastic) Pour some of the paint for the largest surface in the container and time to start rolling.

I didn't take any pictures while I was painting since I am a very messy painter and my hand where covered in blue and white paint and I wanted my camera to stay black. 

I used a large roller for the side of the cabinet and a brush for the drawers. I painted the drawers on the inside as well. 

The paint takes about three hours to dry but I removed the tape after 1,5 hours to check out the borders. As I said before, the tape doesn't guarantee a clean edge... I used a rough sponge to rub of the blue paint on the edges where there wasn't supposed to be blue paint. 

This is the final result! What do you guys think? Would you ever do this yourself of would you just search for that perfect cabinet in the right color immediately?