How To Paint A Metal Filing Cabinet

Hey Everyone, welcome back to my blog. I hope you enjoyed last weeks DIY post on how to add texture to a jug or vase. Definitely a fun project to do and budget friendly.

In this blog post I am sharing on how to paint a metal filing cabinet. I have a YouTube video on the entire process if you are more of a visiual person and find videos a better way to learn, ill add the link below so you can take a look at that.

The before of the filing cabinet is above and thats what i started with, a boring metal cabinet that needed some love and life.
Let's get started.......

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First things first, take off the hardware and place in a bag so screws and handles don't get misplaced. We don't want panick mode.
If your filing cabinet has the letter slots take those off as well and store in a bag.
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Scuff sanding metal you need either your orbitol sander with 220 grit sanding discs or 220 sanding paper to scuff sand by hand if you choose to do it that way. I used my orbitol and went over the entire cabinet. After I was done that I used a cloth and Krud Kutter to clean it. Making sure it was completely dry afterwards.

Next up is prime time, always prime your pieces including metal. I used Zinzer Bin 123 in white with my Wagner Flexio 5000 sprayer. You can use a brush as well. I did about two coats of primer.

I sanded in between primer coats with 400 grit sanding paper, then got to the fun painting part. I sprayed Country Chic Paint in Elegance in 2-3 coats and sanded in between with 600 grit sand paper for a smooth finish.

Once the paint was dry I wanted a design so I created stripes at different lengths with green tape on the top and bottom on both sides. You can do a different design or not have stripes at all.

What i did was sprayed the stripes with rustoleum spray in champagne mist using a cardboard sheet to contain the spray where I wanted it to go. I realized after that there was a line from the cardboard and needed to remove that. I got my sprayer with the paint in it and sprayed along the edges to hide the sharp gold lines and created a mist and faded look which I really liked.

Once the stripes were completely dry to the touch I added a Redesign With Prima transfer called Goldenrod Florals to both sides. It was really starting to look so pretty.

Last thing to do was to seal the entire cabinet with Country Chic Paint tough coat. Tough coat repels water and chemicals and is very durable. Here is what the filing cabinet looks like in the end. It turned out so beautiful, this is something anyone can do and you can turn something boring into something fun and pretty to liven any space up. Don't forget the Youtube video is below at the end.
Thanks for reading and watching and I hope to see you back here on my blog next week.
Take care
​Meg