Crafting An Upcycled Medicine Cabinet

Howdy Folks!
I hope Autumn has arrived in your neck of the woods. Fall has bestowed its beautiful face upon us in eastern North Carolina. I have had my windows open every day and I love the fresh air. It has been in the upper 70’s in the days and down in the upper 50’s to 60’s at night. I LOVE this time of year!

Today I want to share with you another  crafty project from my Shabby to Chic Master Bathroom Makeover . I had grown tired of my “primitive” style medicine cabinet and really needed a larger one (as you can see by my bottle of Pepto residing on top of it)
Primitive Medicine Cabinet

I found this old crate at a thrift shop awhile back for a couple of dollars. I liked the rustic look to it and figured I could do something with it. It spent some time sitting in my garage waiting for a purpose and had since moved on to holding some of my Home Decor magazines in the living room. (I am a major magazine hoarder!)  I figured this old crate could be a solution to my medicine cabinet dilemma. I could have gone to the store and bought a brand new, nondescript one but where was the fun in that??? Plus, I could create one cheaper and have fun doing it.

old crate

I went to my home improvement store and picked up an inexpensive 1/2″ thick  pine board , cut two “shelves” and attached them to the inside  of the crate with wood glue, 3/4″ wood supports and small nails. After that it got a coat of dark water based stain.

an upcycled crate

Once dry, I applied white latex paint with a dry brush technique, keeping the rustic integrity of the piece.

crate medicine cabinet

To assemble the door to the cabinet I built a frame out of 1″ X 2″ pieces of pine cut with my trusty old miter saw. I nailed it together, gave the door the same paint treatment, and stapled chicken wire to the back. Then I layered on some vintage rose fabric and stapled that on as well.

Stapling Fabric to Wooden Door

I attached the door to the cabinet with small hinges, added a vintage drawer pull and hung it on the wall with heavy duty wall anchors….

an upcycled medicine cabinet

It’s not perfect, but it’s chock full of character and it does its job of holding all of my bathroom junk quite well!

an upcycled crate medicine cabinet

I had a lot of fun crafting my new upcycled medicine cabinet and it was budget friendly as well.  The crate was only a few dollars, somewhere between $2-$5. (Like I said, I bought it quite awhile ago). I had the vintage fabric, chicken wire and hardware on hand so my out of pocket expenses for additional wood were less than $10. This project could easily be done  for less than $25 if everything was bought from scratch.

TIP:

If you like the look, but can’t find a suitable crate you can easily assemble a simple box design out of new or salvaged wood.

Thanks so much for visiting today!

~Lisa

Subscribe to Lisa’s Blog via email and never miss a post! Learn how to decorate on a budget creatively, get crafty ideas and be inspired to tackle your own design projects!

2 Responses

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *