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My awesome organizing idea that actually works
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So I searched and searched for something to replace the buffet I had in my kitchen/dining area other than a china cabinet. What I came up with was to buy 4-5 tall filing cabinets (at our local Habitat for Humanity Restore) and paint them and line them all up next to each other.
What I found was 4 LEAGAL, not letter, sized filing cabinet with 5 drawers each for $35 a piece. That is the same price I was seeing 2 drawer letter sized cabinets at all our thrift stores.
So after a lot of coats of yellow paint and some chalk board paint on the end this, http://pinterest.com/pin/240168592601587746/
Is what’s finished product looks like.
I am filing it with books, school supplies, movies. It is like having a giant card catalog, I love it! We have a calendar on the chalk board on the end and we will write our memory verse, composer name, artist and things that last for 6 weeks on it.
Just thought it might inspire some of you ladies who need some more storage, it really utilizes some vertical space.
Thank you for sharing. I finially now what to do to hide all my husbands mountaineering and hunting gear that is piled up in the little alcove of our school room/office/storage for everything else that didn’t have a place in the rest of the house. Plus I can store all our paperwork and extra cables and stuff.
Kayla, your solution is very pretty! And clean! Are you truly able to keep stuff from piling up on top? I know I would end up placing papers and such “temporarily” on top!!
Ha! We are terrible about surfaces getting piles. But excuse these are so tall I think they are not as convenient to set stuff on and I have my husband the very first top drawer. So when he comes home from work his stuff all goes in there instead of on top 🙂 and because you have to push the button them pull the drawer they kids haven’t figured out how to open them yet!
Love it! It’s very similar to something I pinned several months ago. I’ve been keeping an eye out at the thrift stores for these ever since. I like the shorter look for our school room so that the top wood piece can be our nature shelf.
Wow! I was about to get rid of two tall file cabinets like that! Not now… What kind of primer & paint did you use?
One of my friends said that if you take the filing cabinet to a car painting place they can also do a good job for a fairly reasonable price – not sure what that price is, but I LOVE the idea of painting them… just not having to paint them myself! LOL!
Painting…I initially bought kilz primer and rustoleum spray paint. But I live in Florida and it rains everyday, and is hot. Spray paint does not like high temps or to get rained on. Since they weigh a ton my husband would have had to roll them onto the drive way for me to paint and i would not have been able to bring them back inside.
So, I returned all the spray paint and I bought kilz primer, did 2 coats. And just a basic Valspar paint and rolled/brushed on 3 more coats of the yellow.
We put a drop cloth down and then put them on it and I just painted inside during naps. I did not paint the sides in between and the tops are slpotchy because we will eventually do a butcher clock top like in Lindsey’s link.
That is amazing! So, so pretty and practical! (And I do love that combination.) I do want to add one thought. A couple of years ago, I read a horrific story of a child who was killed by a piece of furniture that fell on them. I had absolutely no idea how common that was until that time. I’m in the process of securing everything in our house, and looking at that piece makes me think it needs to be secured. It’s got to be incredibly heavy, and those drawers are perfect for climbing (when they do figure out how to open them). Just a thought. 🙂
Lovely. I love seeing people using homeschooling spaces in a practical way and still making it pretty.
Easybrizy they are incredibly heavy! I have not attached them to the wall yet, but I was sure to fill the bottom drawers with all my fashion design books from college, and all my husbands fishing, hunting, plant, guns books. So they basically have balast in them 🙂 thank you. For the warning. My kids are not climbers but we can never be too careful.
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