apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Krylon?
Rustoleum?

Hard to say what else is going on in the room and what colors are you leaning towards.

I think a deep gunmetal grey would be nice for a metal cabinet give it more of a retro feel and a good blender color. Maybe add some brushed nickel hardware to polish up the look. Take off the stuff on top.

It told me it wants to be a happy green.

High-gloss spray paint in your favorite wild color. It will be great.

If you're into a more time-consuming and meticulous project, might be fun to apply a decorative moulding. Something large at the top, and a thin, flat moulding to frame the face of the doors. Then paint the whole thing in your color of choice. This would really help to make it look more decorative and less business-like.

How about paint it a really bright and crazy color, apply some funky stencils, then paint over it in a more sedate color, remove the stencils and viola! You have something pretty fantastic! In fact, there is a website that sells just such treasures for an exorbitant amount of money.

Oh Exciting!

I've seen similar cabinets like this and old medical cabinets look really great when sand blasted so to reveal the shiny metal exterior (and interior). They've been priced over $1000 at furniture stores in Toronto. I think you could also have the metal stained to a desired colour.

Another idea, if you're making it a piece of furniture for your home: cap the top with crown moulding, or other furniture detailing such as legs, or decorative framing? Take ideas from pieces that currently exist in the room or your home.

For the interior: remove metal shelving (if exists) and replace with glass panels (at least 1/2 inch thick). You'd be surpised how cheap it is to have glass custom cut at framing shops.

Remove the doors from the hinges and have two wood panels the same width cut. Replace with the existing hinges.

Finally, if at all possible -- replace the handles!

I saw a cute idea in the magazine Blueprint (I think), where they took enlarged pen & ink drawings of antique furniture and decopaged them to plainer furniture. Perhaps a large armoire? Places like Kinkos can print out large enlargements onto thicker bond paper.

A few years ago I took an old file cabinet and painted each piece (cabinet-each drawer) a different primary color. I used rustoleum marking paint, which I had on hand, and which I found had the most iconic shade of each color (safety red, caution blue, etc). I think the whole job would have cost $15 if I had bought the paints.

Anyway, if I were to do it again, I think I would do the individual metal panels, following the assembly process, which I think would make a more interesting piece. I'm also not sure I would still use primaries.

If you paint it, think long and hard about gloss vs. flat (it will depend on the colors you pick, I think, and I would embrace the materiality of it.

paint it fire-engine red!!

I'm surprised that you call yourself an artsy craftsy person but can't seem to come up with an idea for this cabinet.

I'd paint it and embrace it's officyness, unless it's totally not your style and that's the hard thing to really know without knowing what else is going on in the room that it'll be fitting into.

I had bought a used 2 drawer file cabinet at an estate years ago and it was gunmetal gray, I rattle canned it bright red with a rustolium anti rust primer and then added new, modern chrome pulls and voila, a bright red desk base. I also did the same to a dark brown wooden 3 drawer cabinet base and it really gave the room color even though neither were the most stylish, but that's just the thing, color ADDS style to almost anything.

Go for it! Paint it! Make it fit into the room!

Grab some magazines and peruse the blogs for inspiration and soon you'll have it looks much less like a generic office filing cabinet.

Good luck!

Too much depends on what else is going on to really advise. Paint is the obvious step, but it could be stripes or solids or decorative designs or murals or faux finishes or a million other things... It would be an easy piece to make a focal point "art object" as long as it works with your other stuff.

A couple of things... Whatever you do, remember to not undermine the functionality. So, if you have the whim to use 3-D decorations (glued on moldings, maybe), make sure before it is too late that doing that doesn't impede opening and closing the doors. Make sure that paint doesn't run into the hinges and keep them from working properly. Like that.

I also think it would be cool to jazz up the interior. If you do, make SURE any paint is super dry before putting your disks on it. (I work in a library. We bought some second-hand shelving and some had recently been painted to match. We didn't realize it and things stuck. It was bad!)

So, if your room is all white, you could paint the exterior a bright spring green, the interior fuschia, and use a little gold leaf decoration -- or absolutely anything YOU like!

My advice is to embrace the industrial-ness of the thing. Paint it a color you like and try not to fuss it up with other kinds of decoration. It'll just be putting lipstick on a pig. I mean, do you really want to make it the focal point of the room?

If you plan to use it for your TV, make sure there's a way to run your cords out (and still shut the doors).

I have a cabinet exactly like this; originally I wanted to strip it down to the raw metal but I got lazy and just spray painted the thing silver, and it's actually a pretty decent imitation. I'm using mine as an armoire, so I lined the shelves with hot-pink brocade, and the color does give it a nice pop. Maybe wallpaper would work on the inside of yours?

I love the idea of fire engine red - maybe you could also cut out some cool design along the top of down a side, then if you stuck a light in it, it would glow through the metal slots.

You would need a welding cutter, they are easy to use though. Awesome idea, I love the modern, industrialness of this...

Awesome ideas guys, thanks so much!!

I had a few ideas about painting/stenciling, but figured you'd be a more thorough forum than my own head... I love the idea of some simple moulding. That thought didn't even cross my mind, but conveniently, we're neighbors with a wood worker! So that could be the way to go. I also really like the idea of contrasting the inside & outside -- I wasn't even gonna mess with the inside, but now I'm rethinking that. And bagelpower -- what a cool idea with the light & metal cutouts!! I don't think I have that kind of skill/power tool available, but that idea sounds wonderful. Maybe for the next metal cabinet! (Oh, and I'm definitely going to take the stuff off the top. The cabinet is still in our shop, not the apartment!)

Thanks again for your help,

Emily

Paint it and apply a Threadless vinyl decal from whatisblik.com. I've seen this done with amazing results.

I purchased two of these to act as wardrobes in my bedroom. I scuffed them up a bit with sandpaper and then sprayed them with very thin layers of paint from an automotive paint store (in a very dark, almost midnight blue). I think they look great.

fire-engine red....high gloss