I was in need of a "leg" for my work surface in my craft room. I'm always trying to re-use the things I already have. I already had the work surface. I have a degree in Interior Design, and the work surface is actually my old portable drafting table. I knew I wanted to save space by using the radiator cover as the other leg. I took a measurement to the top of the radiator cover, and it told me how high I needed to have the other "leg".
I found this absolutely hideous little 4 drawer metal chest at my local thrift store, on an extra 25% off Monday. It's the only day I shop there. Too expensive for a store that has 100% of their stock donated. ::gets off soap box::. I first wrote about this little bugger, here.
Why yes, that is faux wood grain. Ick. I can't find a picture of the price I paid for it, but I'm almost certain it was $4.99 (minus 25%). With the exception of the wrinkle on the top, it is in pretty good shape, and just the right height.
I did try to bang the wrinkle out, with a hammer. Didn't work, but that's totally OK. Drawer (pretty much) shuts, and for $5, I'm not really arguing. I did buy some new drawer pulls for it. I think I got the cheapest ones at Lowes, in the color I wanted. While I was there, I got a little 4 oz (maybe 8?) tester of black paint. There color scheme of this room is Black, White, and Tiffany Blue.
To start this project, I removed the drawers, and placed the shell of the chest onto the top of a Rubbermaid tote (to protect my floor). I was on my "Staycation" when I completed this project. I found (thankfully) an un-used FOB card. I work in the medial field. It was only partly funny that even on vacation, I can't get away from something reminding me of work.
I painted the front, the drawers, and the back, black. Paint covered quite well, so I think I only did one coat. I used the sponge brushes, kind of like a dabber. It worked, and was cheap! Now looking at these pictures (a year and a half later) I'm not sure if I did one or two coats on the back. I hate painting so much that maybe I just left it like that, since the only thing that will really be seeing it...is my knees when I'm sitting at the table!
Yeah. I hate painting that much. Sigh. Ok. Moving on. The outside! I had purchased some vinyl table cloths to protect my furniture from Fat Cat from peeing on it. Poor thing passed away, so I had a few of them left over (un-used). I happened to have picked just the right color for this room. Yay! They were on sale to begin with, and now I have a second life for them. I'm going to guess I paid maybe $1.57 for them at Target. I used one for this project AND the shelving project (you can see that here, after I write it up). That's one table cloth between the two projects, not one for each project.
I used the factory finished edge on the drawer side. I hot glued the table cloth to the metal. And...the above picture answers whether or not I painted a second coat on the back. I didn't. I don't even know why I thought I might have done a second coat. Painting. Meh. The back side is not pretty at all. There was no point in making it pretty. I just folded the fabric over the back, and the bottom and hot glued it in place. As much as I hate painting, that's how much I love my glue gun!
Ahh, things are coming together so nicely in this room! And, it makes me SO happy that I'm doing this relatively cheaply, when possible, using things I already have. In the above picture you can see in the corner, the bookcase hasn't been painted yet.
This corner is looking pretty awesome! I kept it this way for a while. On top of the drawer units, those are little shelves. They're supposed to hang on the wall, but I never got that far with them. They are currently on the dresser, and a three shelf black bookcase (holding my fleece) is in it's place. I'm hoping once I get my fabric stash under control, I can put the bookcase somewhere else.
Side note, that laundry sorter came from the free section of Craigslist. I took the "bags" off and washed them. They also hold fabric. Mostly my scraps. The one closest to the plastic drawers has my rolls/bolts of fabric in them right now.
So, there we go. If I had to put a $ figure on this project, I'd say $1 for the paint. $2 for the pulls, $4 for the dresser itself, and $0.75 for the fabric. $7.75 total. I'm SO HAPPY with this little project.
What do you think?
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