Make Something Old Awesome {Michaels RE-Love Challenge}

Is there a really ugly piece of furniture in your house that you hate to throw out but don’t quite know what to do with? That’s how I felt about this old microwave cart, which I told you about last week. But now I love the darn thing, thanks to the Michaels RE-Love challenge.

The idea was to take something that was already in our home and — with the help of a gift card from Michaels — make it into something much more fabulous. I think I succeeded, challenges notwithstanding.

If you look very close at all you will notice that my paint job is not that great. This piece is particleboard, and since I had no idea how much paint it would take I opted for spray paint, which turned out to be a bad idea.

It was windy, and it rained and/or was too cold for painting most of last week. And my second can got a clogged nozzle. So I did the best I could and may yet go back and repaint it, but even messy it’s head and shoulders above what it used to look like.

The top I painted with Martha Stewart chalkboard paint in a pretty blue. It may need another coat before it’s completely done.

I wanted to use this cart for some of my daughter’s craft supplies to make them a little more accessible. So on the bottom shelf I put her rubber stamp sets, which had been on top of a shelf where she couldn’t really get to them. The little boxes down there I bought at Michaels and they have some playdough tools in them. Playdough will be stored down here, too, I’m sure.

The other shelf has a shoebox that I covered with scrapbook paper I bought at Michaels and filled with markers, paint pens, glitter glue, dot markers and other drawing supplies. They’re supported by a bunch of paper towel tubes cut down to size. Next to that are a couple of origami boxes I made (here’s the tutorial for those) and filled with a small part of her sticker collection. There’s a lot more room on this shelf so I’m sure I’ll add more stuff soon.

In the drawer I put several plastic photo boxes I bought at Michaels that are filled with little things that sometimes get lost, like the crayon sharpener, glue stick and scissors. There are also some alphabet crayons in one and dry erase crayons in another. A set of oil pastel crayons fills out the drawer.

My favorite part may be the sides of the cart. Here’s one side, which has a dry erase magnet board on top and a cork board on the bottom. The other side has two cork boards. These will be fun for showing off recent projects. The cork boards came with adhesive squares and the dry erase board I attached with double-stick foam adhesive. It should be relatively permanent, which is fine with me.

I know I love this “new” piece of furniture and I wouldn’t have come up with this fabulous plan without a creative push from Michaels. I hope it inspires you to take a fresh look at something in your home, and if it does I hope you’ll share it with me!