Garage Sale Treasures - Color Blocked File Cabinet

     While I did acquire this piece for free at a garage sale, it has been one of my more expensive projects so far, just in the cost of the paint.  Even so, it was definitely a fun project and I love color blocking!  I have my eye out for some shelves I can paint to match this to make a geometrically decorated office space.  

     The reason I was able to take this piece home for free was that the bottom drawer was completely broken out.  The pieces were all there, but it was more hassle to the original owner than they wanted to deal with.  I had some parental woodworking help, and we made a father-daughter project of reassembling the drawer.  It took some sweat, blood (wood staples are pointy!), and persistence to get through all the wood glue and staples, but we finally got it back into shape.

BEFORE: 

     The wood was nice and solid on this piece, so I just needed to break out the electric sander and prepare the wood for the paint.  After sanding and removing the sawdust with tackcloth, I used a white primer paint and then painted the lightest gray all over the piece.  The smooth transitions between colors on the drawer faces were achieved through a combination of painter's tape and careful hand painting with a small angle brush.     

Projects like these just go to show how valuable it can be to invest time into pieces.  With the right tools and know-how, a lot is possible in redoing furniture.  

Colors, Lightest to Darkest:  Stargazer, Supernova, Liquid Mercury, & Orion Gray (Behr)