File Cabinet Makeover

Time for another link up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics and boy is it a biggie! If you've never linked up with her, you need to right away. Well...not right this very second. Finish your reading here and then go link up {smiles}.

 

This week's Monday Made It was inspired by this awesome project I pinned a few months ago. You can check out her steps here.

After reading her post, I thought, no problem. I can do this. I don't have the time right now to do bargain hunting, so I thought I'd ask Mrs. T (our Vice Principal) if she would mind me making over the filing cabinet in my class. She said YES! 

So, last week I went to the school and took out all the drawers and gave it a fresh coat of paint.

 And this weekend the drawers got papered. I'm proud to present my newly made over filing cabinet!

 

Easy right? 

WRONG!! This was a nightmare of a project. I don't want to discourage anyone from trying so here are some things I learned to make your project go much more smoothly.

#1. Choose a filing cabinet that you are 100% sure that all of the hardware on the front will easily come off and go back on. 

Let's just say I didn't do this and that the husband had to get involved with drills and that now one cabinet has a "no longer working" knob hot glued on. 

#2. Spray paint in light coats. 

Do one light coat, let it dry a bit, go back and do another and repeat until you have it covered. I tried covering the thing in one coat which resulted in drips, which resulted in me attempting to fix said drips, which resulted in the necessity of that side having to be placed up against a wall to avoid any embarrassment.

#3. Be an expert Mod Podger before attempting. 

I used a coat of spray adhesive to get the paper to stick. The first drawer bubbled like crazy so I ran to get my Pampered Chef scraper and that only helped minimally. 

I thought maybe I didn't let the spray adhesive dry enough so I waited. I noticed ripples coming up on all the other drawers that hadn't been Mod Podged yet.  Uggh! Frustration level climbing. I reapplied spray adhesive, used the scraper to make sure the paper was really flat and let it dry. The Mod Podge despite my extra efforts. Boo on Mod Podge!

Since I had cut my paper slightly smaller than the face of the cabinet (I didn't wrap it like the one I pinned) I really only needed a seal along the edges. So that's all I did on the other drawers and they came out much better.

Whew! I'm glad that's over. 

After all that work I'm only okay with how it came out. I wish I hadn't done green. I had originally thought about doing blue or pink, but wanted something to pop more. The green sure does, but not so much in the way I had hoped. 

I think I'd be happier with the result if I had skipped the Mod Podge. I always hear about people using Mod Podge, but after this project I just think it stinks! A lot of people mention the bubbling. Why are we still using this stuff?!

Here's what I'd love to know:

What projects have you done with Mod Podge?

Were they successful or did you find yourself frustrated 

(or is that just me)?

What types of projects are best suited for Mod Podge?

What are your top tips for a successful Mod Podge project?

and last but not least, the question on everyone's mind:

How do we avoid the bubbles?!