Easy China Cabinet Update



Closeup of Wallpaper Inserts



I have gotten a little bored with my china cabinet because I feel like it's just too much wood.  I really like painted furniture and I thought I might want to paint it.  Not all of it - but maybe just the base, or the back of each section.  My current favorite color is sage green so I was thinking that's what I would do.  But painting is a lot of work and I wasn't sure if the paint would stick without sanding and priming and I knew I was never going to empty it and haul it outside to work on it.  So it just sat there.

Caroline got on a crafty streak and took a country style cabinet and "upcycled" it by removing the doors and painting it.  She mentioned that she wanted to get that fake tin from Home Depot and put that on the back of the shelves but it was too expensive so she bought a roll of embossed wallpaper instead ($20).  When she showed me what she'd purchased I realized I had an almost complete roll of it myself, so she took that to use and returned what she'd bought. 

She also took some of the "oops" paint that I've been stockpiling to paint the wall paper.  Everytime I go into a home store I can't help but look at the marked down paint that they sell for pennies on the dollor and buy it for future projects.  She cut the wallpaper to fit each section, painted it, and then glued it in place after the paint was dry.  I couldn't believe how cute it was and I also couldn't believe I'd never thought of it myself!  I already had all the stuff to do it too.

This method is great cause it's quick, easy, cheap and there's no commitment.  I can literally change out the panels at any time.  I used double sided tape to affix the panels in place.  I will probably get tired of the sage green before long and I'm thinking that I can use red or a beige for Christmas.  I can always save the panels, roll them up to store right in the cabinet, and change them out whenever I want. 

The wallpaper is not actually paper, it's something much sturdier, probably synthetic, which is good cause it will hold up to all the paint without disentigrating.  It's heavily textured, which means that you have to work to get the paint in all the cracks and crevices.  I just cut mine to fit, laid it all out on some brown paper in the garage and started painting.  I had some "oops" paint in a sage green and I used a sponge brush.  It didn't take much time at all to paint and dried very quickly.  I let it dry overnight to be on the safe side then cut some small pieces of double sided tape and affixed them to each corner, then placed the panels in the cabinet.