Armoire Flip

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Storage.  I cannot emphasize storage enough!

Having a small house makes it very easy for things to become cluttered easily.  You set one thing down on a flat surface and it all goes down hill quickly.  So I needed to have plan and a place for everything. I didn’t want a desk because it would have just become another eyesore.  I needed a shut it and forget it solution.  Thus I decided on the armoire “office” with doors.  

I like things to have character.  I am a huge fan of curves and arches for all kinds of things, so obviously an armoire was the perfect way to incorporate this. I watched the local Habitat for Humanity Restore page every week for a long time waiting for the right thing to become available.  I was so excited when I finally saw the one.  It was an old television cabinet that already had divided sections in it.  I called my husband and showed it to him. We paid for it over the phone so that they would hold it for us.

It wasn’t in as good of shape as I hoped so we used some wood glue and clamps.  Then we got to work.  I started off with different ideas than I finished with, but I loved how it turned out.

Originally, I was going to have a metal back so that I could use magnets to hold things.  I ended up changing my mind and going with peg board.  This way I could hang a variety of sizes of storage baskets. I got this Pegboard basket kit to hang things on the back wall. And we could easily cut holes in it to put electrical cords through.  I bought a small square power strip that had both standard plugs and usb ports. Peg board is not the most beautiful thing to look at, so I needed to do something to make it fun.  I went to Lowes and looked at their tiny sample size paints.  I found this salmon pink color.  On a wall, no way but for a pop of surprise color on the inside of an office armoire, It was perfect.  We painted the peg board and then sprayed it with a blast of glitter spray paint.  I love glitter!  Everything else was painted a clean white.

The top doors of the cabinet pushed back into the sides of the cabinet. If you look at the picture you can see the drawer like slides on each side. This was great. I could actually sit there and work when I wanted without feeling trapped in at all. I did add a Motion activated light. It turned on when the doors opened and was a great extra little feature.

I had some Magnetic locks leftover from our kitchen renovation, so I added these to the top cabinets as well. It kept the kids out of things so they didn't magically disappear. It was nice going to get a pen or tape and it actually being there! (If I didn't already have some I probably never would have thought to do this, but I was glad I had it left.)

I talk about having a place for everything and this was the first time I was able to come up with my own organization system for everyday life.  On the door, each kid had their own basket.  If there was paperwork or permission slips, I kept them in their basket and I didn’t have to worry about them getting shifted into another pile and lost. I had another basket on the other door that I had the paperwork that I was dealing with on a fairly regular basis. It worked great knowing where all of that always was.  I used these super strong Sticky hooks and hanging file baskets. It worked perfectly!

I also like to get woven storage baskets in place of drawers.

Originally I had planned on leaving the exterior just a sanded down sealed wood, but it was not in good enough condition for this to work out.  I picked out this antique white and paired it with some antiqued mercury glass knobs.  Even though it wasn’t what I originally pictured, I loved how it turned out.