How To Turn Basic Filing Cabinets Into Glam Office Storage

If you need a lot of storage in your home office but don’t love the look of standard filing cabinets, a few easy upgrades can make a huge difference. We’ll show you how to turn basic filing cabinets into glam office storage.

Plain filing cabinets may be practical, but they aren’t usually very pretty.

Fortunately, you don’t have to replace them to make them feel more stylish and custom.

With the right decorative details, even basic office storage can become part of the room design instead of looking like leftover office furniture.

That’s exactly the challenge I had in my glam pink home office makeover.

My old oak laminate filing cabinets were still in great shape and incredibly functional, but they definitely didn’t fit the sophisticated look I was going for.

So instead of getting rid of them, I decided to give them a glam filing cabinet makeover that would help them blend in with the rest of the space.

And these are the easy ways I used to upgrade those plain cabinets.

1 | Paint Makes The Biggest Difference

The fastest way to make filing cabinets look more decorative is with paint. (You can learn how, by reading our guide on how to paint laminate furniture).

And using colors that go with your room color scheme automatically makes them feel more custom.

Since my office has soft pink walls with white trim, I wanted the cabinets to feel lighter and more feminine instead of dark and heavy.

So I painted them the same color white as the trim (Benjamin Moore Ivory White).

It immediately brightened the room and helped the storage feel more like furniture instead of office equipment.

But they still looked a little blah.

2 | Add Unexpected Pops Of Color

So I added a few extra details to make these filing cabinets go with the rest of the room color palette (which is black, gold and hot pink).

First, I painted the inside sections bright pink for a fun pop of color.

Which definitely adds some personality and reinforces the glam style of the office.

3 | Add Pinstripes Or Trim For A Custom Look

And then added black pin stripes (using Benjamin Moore Onyx) to the drawer fronts.

This gives the drawers more definition and makes the cabinets feel more custom.

The contrast between the white and black was especially important because it helped balance all of the softer pink tones in the room.

You could create a similar effect with thin wood trim, decorative molding or peel-and-stick trim tape.

It’s an easy way to upgrade plain cabinets without spending much money.

4 | Upgrade The Top Surface

I also wanted to do something with the tops of the cabinets.

It’s a fairly large surface so it seemed like too much white in the room. (Especially for a trim color).

Painting them light pink that was just a little darker than the walls made quite a big difference.

But there are lots of other ways to dress up the surface. You could:

• decoupage it with wrapping paper or wallpaper, using ModPodge. (I ended up doing this with wallpaper).
• cover it with peel-and-stick contact paper (like I did with this laptop table).
• glue on a laminate sheet in the color of your choice, like I did for my DIY desk.
• install a real countertop over the top.

5 | Change out the hardware

The final update was to change out the hardware. I always think of hardware as jewelry for furniture because it’s often the finishing detail that pulls everything together.

In this case, the original hardware felt very basic and office-like, while the new decorative knobs instantly made the cabinets feel more feminine.

Since I love flowers and the pink went with the room, I decided to use these rose cabinet knobs*. And they were just the right finishing touch.

This post was part of my pink home office makeover for the One Room Challenge. Here are the updates from all of the other weeks:

• Week 1: Girly glam home office ideas
• Week 2: Glam Parisian pink home office mood board
• Week 3: How to add Parisian style to a builder-grade room
• Week 4: How to turn plain filing cabinets into glam storage furniture
• Week 5: Pink home office furniture
• Week 6: Glam pink home office makeover – the reveal!

Have comments or questions about our glam filing cabinet makeover? Tell us in the section below.