Classroom Cabinet

So I'm not sure if this quite counts as a Made4Math but I did make it, and it's Monday and I teach math so I think it'll be ok ;)

I have a problem throwing things away.  I see a potential project everywhere.  I've watched HGTV and Nate Berkus turn trash into awesome things enough times to make me obsessed.  I also especially hate throwing away shelves, baskets, containers and things like that because you never know what you might need in the classroom.

Projects like this totally justify my need to save EVERYTHING because I'm so in love with it.

This cabinet is pretty old and has been around my house for a long time.  No one here had any use for it anymore and it was headed for the trash so of course I couldn't let that happen.

It actually looks a little better in the pictures but it was like a dirty off white color with some stains on it.  Honestly it wasn't that terrible and I thought I could definitely find some use for it in my classroom.  I put it in my car on Friday to bring to school but as I went to take it out of my car I hesitated because I just thought a coat of spray paint or something could make it look nicer.

I didn't really have any particular color in mind.  In my garage I found a full can of metallic silver spray paint and thought that could look cool.  Instead of an old wicker cabinet maybe it could look like metal.

I took the doors and knobs off and started painting.  I sprayed the whole thing with a couple coats of the silver spray paint and then a coat of clear polyurethane.  The lighting in this picture is off and doesn't really give a great idea of what it looked like, but it was cool.

And here's the finished product.  I'm a little bummed that the picture doesn't show quite what it looks like but trust me, it looks way better than it started. :)

But that's not all... Even after painting the shelves were still in rough shape and I had just the thing to take care of that....my contact paper from Target!

So on the outside it looks metallic and then there's a fun surprise on the inside!  I'm in love with it.  Also loving the fact that the entire project cost me nothing since all the stuff was around the house.  

And for comparison's sake, here's a nice little before & after.