UPcycle That Old Armoire: Let It Spice Up Your Kitchen!

by Randi Destefano

Whether it’s an old furniture piece that no longer works in your bedroom or family room, or maybe you made a great estate sale find; an old armoire can become a fabulous “baking station” for your kitchen.  If you want to make a splash in your kitchen, try painting the armoire an accent color that compliments your cabinets. Whites and off-whites, sandy taupes, celadon greens and French blues are just a few ideas for accent colors with a generally universal appeal!

If you don’t have experience painting furniture, you want to make sure you:

1) clean the furniture thoroughly 

2) sand off all hints of a glossy finish

3) clear the dust and prime it with something like Kilz primer

4) sand again (!) and clear the dust

5) paint!

Whew! Now that that’s done, make some modifications to the armoire doors.

For example, you can insert a piece of cork-board on the inside of a paneled door, that way you can tack up your written recipes to refer to them as your prep in your new space.  The back of the other door could be transformed with a coat of magnetic chalkboard paint. Then not only can you make note of some quick recipe conversions, you can also use it as a place to store magnetic tins filled with spices or cake decorating details.

Better Homes & Gardens recommends reinforcing a waist-high self to serve as a workstation, and fitting a low drawer with wire dividers to sort pans and baking sheets. Bakeware can be hung inside the cabinet and dry ingredients can be stored in decorative glass or acrylic canisters with sealed lids.  Crate and Barrel even offers white stoneware canisters, in three sizes, with a chalkboard label. Now you have all your baking needs right at your fingertips and you’ve added an interesting and beautiful custom furniture piece to your kitchen!

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