Upcycled CD cabinet

Upcycle is a buzz word which has been around for a few years now. For those unfamiliar it means turning something that is now waste or considered outdated into something of use, like when I turned vintage doilies into a bathroom curtain the other day. You can read about that here. My post today is about an upcycled CD storage cabinet which will find a new life.

Here is the original CD storage cabinet. In its day...which wasn't that long ago, it was a very nice piece of furniture. This one is well made from pine, is quite heavy and I would imagine it had a hefty price tag brand new. I however managed to pick it up at the auction last week for a bargain price of $20. Such is the downside of technology changing so quickly...lots of landfill in the making!

Now I need to make it clear...this is not my original idea. I think I first saw this on Pinterest, but I haven't been able to find it again. If you know who originally had this idea please let me know so I can give credit to that person. My first job was to remove these plastic inserts which actually held the compact discs in place.

Looks easy enough...sounds easy enough...just remove the screws...oh wait, and the staples, hadn't noticed those, actually the easy part was the idea, the removal of this plastic was much harder than I imagined. If you have lovely small dainty hands you'll probably do this part much better, but I struggled working in the confined space of the cabinet. I had to stop after 30 minutes of struggling to go to the hardware store and buy a Philips head screwdriver with a short handle ($10) so that I could fit it and my hand inside the space to remove the screws. It didn't stop my hand rubbing against the plastic on the other side however...this was the result.

So about now I was contemplating giving up, I guess sheer determination and that $30 already spent kept me going! After all the screws were removed, I used a chisel to pry the plastic away from the staples and then pliers to remove the staples.

Seriously I thought this would be a fifteen minute job, may thirty minutes tops, but after two and a half exhausting hours (not counting my trip to the hardware store) and sore and aching hands, all plastic was finally removed! ( I did recycle the screws).

So with that job out of the way the fun was about to start!

There were lots of small holes from the screws and the staples that needed filling, and then a light sand all over was in order, thank goodness the mouse sander was small enough to fit inside the cabinet!

All ready for painting.

I chose Blake & Taylor furniture paint. I had the same issue with the painting, as I did with removing the screws, it was so hard to get my hand and the brush inside the confined space. I'm very pleased that I had Blake & Taylor paint because it doesn't require a primer and was easy to apply even with the difficulty of getting inside the cabinet. I love it!

First coat done. The interior is Kettle Green, the exterior is Old White.

The finished product, with its intended use illustrated. I used two coats of green paint and three coats of white then finished it off with one coat of wax.

I am so totally happy with my finished toilet roll storage solution! It is perfect for my very small bathroom/toilet room. The paint came up beautifully and I am very glad I persevered when the going got tough...would I do it again? Probably not. The amount of work involved in this project makes it a perfect once in a lifetime do-it-yourself project, which is well worth doing.  Lisa xx