As you may have seen from my previous post I have been kindly asked by Direct Blinds to join in with their ‘Renovation Sensation’ competition. They gave me £100 to find, buy and renovate a piece of furniture of my choice – the perfect competition!

I chose to buy a cabinet from eBay that I need for my new home office. I have taken a lot of inspiration from modern Scandinavian interiors so I want the room to be light, bright and white with vintage touches here and there. The cabinet I bought is a great shape and I love the glass doors but it has a very dark, orangey veneer that is not so pleasant – definitely not the lovely teak of a mid-century cabinet. I tested sanding a patch but it is made of some sort of composite wood so no beautiful grain or colour to reveal.  Therefore, my first task was to brighten it so it doesn’t absorb all of the light from the room. I then tried to give it a bit of character and add some more storage to the top for all my craft supplies. Here’s how I did it…

Renovation

What I used (anything with a price next to it I bought for this competition with the £100 budget):

Cabinet £30

1 litre of Annie Sloan pure chalk paint £18.95

Annie Sloan clear wax

Two sheets of 3.5cm pegboard (60 x 120cm with 1.8cm hole centres) £8 each

Pegboard hooks £13.79

Batons, screws and drill to mount the pegboard

Mini Moderns Snow Peggy wallpaper remnants

PVA glue

Clear varnish

Paint brushes

Clean rag

Scissors

TOTAL: £78.74

Step 1:

I mounted two sheets of pegboard above the cabinet to add extra storage for my craft supplies.

Step 2:

I used pure chalk paint for the cabinet as you can apply this paint straight onto the veneer with no need to sand! Sometimes, with varnished or veneered wood the stain can bleed through the chalk paint so you need to do a tester patch first. If it does come through do a base coat of Zinsser stain blocker. I then used the clear soft wax to add some extra protection to the cabinet. I used eggshell on the pegboard as it needs to be really strong to withstand wear and tear.

Step 3:

I then used Mini Moderns wallpaper remnants to line the shelves of the cabinet and the pattern reflects the pegboard wall. I spread a very thin even layer of PVA glue over the shelf and laid the paper over it very carefully to ensure I didn’t trap too much air. If you don’t have wallpaper you could also use wrapping paper but use a very small amount of glue as otherwise it will wrinkle.

Step 4:

I put the wallpapered shelves into place and then varnished the paper to make it hard wearing and to avoid scuffing.

After…

So, I have finished the first corner of my new home office – better start stuffing that cabinet with all my craft supplies and finishing off the floor! Thank you to Direct Blinds and fingers crossed that I win this brilliant competition.

Katy x

I have been asked to enter the best competition EVER!  I’ve been given £100 by Direct Blinds to buy and renovate a piece of furniture of my choice.  Amazing.

I want you to see the ‘before’ shot of the piece I have bought from eBay for £30. I wanted to buy something that I need so this is going to be perfect in my new home office for craft storage. It’s a great shape (love the legs), I like the glass doors and it’s a very practical size. However, in this space, particularly as it is next to the window, it seems to suck every ounce of light from the room. If it were in the sitting room or hallway, I might keep it as it is but it is not the lovely teak you might think it is from the photos; it is actually quite a nasty dark, orangey veneer.

So, it needs to be lightened, a little dash of character and some pegboard to go above the cabinet. This is going to be storage heaven!

Entries close on July 15th so check back to see what the piece will eventually look like.

I’d love to know what you would do to this piece too! Leave me a comment 😉

Katy x