Turning Plastic Into Wood

When I began scrapbooking in 2006, I came up with a design and hubby provided the manpower to create an 18 drawer cabinet with a shelving unit on top to store all my meager craft supplies and 12" x 12" scrapbooking paper. We began with six three-drawer Sterlite drawer sets I found at Walmart, stacking them three high and two across. Hubby built a sturdy wooden cabinet around them, adding wheels on the bottom for ease of movement. It was perfect; more than enough room for all my scrapping tools and supplies (er, at that time, that is...).

My "scraproom" circa 2006 - with the then, red cabinet
Yep, life was simpler then, and Dakotah was already my office assistant

Four years (and a major population explosion of supplies) later, daughter moved her bedroom downstairs and I set up my craft space in her larger room. I redecorated the room from purple and green to beige, brown and black. That's when the cabinet got it's first makeover; painted black from it's former deep red hue. 

My "scraproom" circa 2010 - the cabinet was now dressed in classic black
Along with nearly everything else I could paint - other than the walls

Then in late 2011, daughter returned to her room upstairs and I began to decorate my new basement art studio with an antique theme. I was determined to replace as much plastic as I could with old wood and metal -- which meant that the Sterlite drawers of my favorite cabinet now stuck out like a sore clear-plastic thumb.

Something had to be done...

So once again, thanks to hubby's help (and power tools), this past weekend we transformed it to better fit in a Victorian Studio. My trusty cabinet received a facelift of stained wood fronts and antique brass and porcelain handles. A total $24 investment (for the antique handles on eBay), as the wood and stain were already on hand.

My cabinet today - yep, it's still a plastic organizer on the inside,
but pretty vintage-y on the outside

A side view

Perfect.

I'm linking this project to: