Armoire Makeover

Last week, I shared how we started the process of making over Jackson's playroom. You can find all of the details including before and after photos here! There were 3 main DIY's we tackled in this room - the wallpaper accent wall, the closet Lego table, and transforming our antique armoire to be more functional in this space - which is what I'm revealing today!

This armoire came from Tim's great grandfather and has lived with us since we bought our first home in 2011. Here she is in her original glory in our previous house.

A few years ago, we decided to paint her and have fallen even more in love!

The armoire is covered in veneer so in order for paint to adhere, we gave it a few coats of this primer before painting it this gorgeous blue gray color. Additionally, we used a paint sprayer, which I cannot rave enough about!

We never got around to reconfiguring the inside of the armoire to better suit our storage needs - until now, that is! There is a bar for clothes on the top right side, which we obviously do not need. While it's always been helpful to have the storage space, we always ended up just shoving stuff in here.

Our plan was to take out the original shelving and create adjustable shelves using leftover MDF from the floating desk and metal pilaster strips. Tim found a beautiful brass option at Lowes which looks great with our antique piece!

The first thing we did was remove all of the shelves and their supports. We were careful not to damage the integrity of the piece. We also removed the bottom trim piece so that items could be more easily stored on the bottom shelf.

Instead of mounting screws directly into the outer walls of the armoire, which are thin, Tim cut large pieces of plywood the same size as the side walls and we screwed our pilasters into that! The plywood was secured to the sides with wood glue. Once the glue was dry, I painted the entire interior the same color as the outside.

After the paint was dry, we installed the pilaster strips, making sure they were level with one another.

Tim took measurements for the width and depth of each side and cut shelves out of our leftover MDF. Note - make sure your measurements are taken from pilaster to pilaster, not wall to wall! We had, within inches, the exact amount we needed for both the desk and 6 shelves! I sanded the edges and gave each shelf 2 coats of the same paint.

Once everything was dry, we decided where we wanted the shelves to go and inserted the shelf clips. From there, we placed our shelves on top of the clips. And if we ever decide we want different height shelves, the clips easily move!

To maximize our space, I added clear acrylic storage bins with adhesive mounts to the insides of the doors. Even though Jackson has a dedicated art table in our basement, art supplies are constantly finding their way upstairs. Now he has supplies in both locations!

I am so in love with how this turned out! A lot of work and love went into this room and it is hard not to want to spend the entire day in this space building with Lego, coloring, and snuggling with my guy! I hope you love it too!

Have you transformed an antique piece of furniture into something brand new? I'd love to see! As always, I hope you find some inspiration here! If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the blog to make sure you don't miss a single post!

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xoxo, L

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