Introduction: Pimp Your Medicine Cabinet

About: I'm a social-worker, working with 12 - 23 year-olds. I used to be a printer. In 2018 I opened a small makerspace (www.imdib.nl) in my house, where I have lasercutters, 3d-printers, Arduino's, Mindstorms and ot…

After remodeling my bathroom, I needed a new medicine cabinet. I couldn't find anything I like, so I bought a second hand boring, simple medicine cabinet and gave it the same treatment that I gave my guest room wall.

I decorated it with dragons and unicorns because... well... dragons and unicorns :)

The decorations where made with my 3d printer and using stass-stones. The paint I still had from the guest room wall.

The 3d-designs where found at Thingiverse.

[see the last step on some tips how I could have done it easier]

Step 1: You Will Need

Stuff

  • Medicine Cabinet
  • Stuff to decorate with, like strass-stones, tape and other designs
  • Metall paint
  • Black paint (or other contrasting colour)
  • Black spray paint
  • Primer
  • Masking tape and cardboard
  • Terpentine (solvant)
  • Super glue

Tools

  • Brush
  • Cloth
  • 3D-printer (if you want to make your own decors)


Costs

Well for me this was a really cheap project. I just bought the cabinet (3,50), the strass-stones (1,45) and a brush (0,90). All the other stuff where leftovers from previous projects.

So for me this project cost: 5,85 (euro)

But if I'm honest with myself, I should add some money for the 3D filament, super-glue and paint. Still I don't think this project would go far over 10,-.

Step 2: Prepare the Cabinet

To prep the cabinet:

  • Clean
  • Degrease with solvent
  • Mask the inside so the spray paint can't get there
  • Prime with primer (my cabinet was plastic so I used a special primer for that)
  • Paint black

Step 3: To Decorate

For me this was the hardest part. I found the designs I liked on Thingiverse.

This is the Unicorn I used and this the Star Trek Medic sign. I can't find the dragon anymore. I printed them on a Robo-3D printer. The letters are easily designed in 123D-design.

I used some tape to create the band in the middle.

To create the "nails" I used self adhesive strass-stones. The colour is not important. I will paint them anyway.

The 3D printed decorations are glued on with super-glue.

We added new plastic so:

  • Degrease with solvent
  • Prime with primer
  • Spray paint black

Step 4: Metal Paint

I did put some cardboard between the door and the cabinet, because I only want to paint the door.

I brushed on 4 layers of metal paint with short random strokes, to get it all covered.

Then I brushed on the black paint and took it off immediately with a cloth with solvent. The effect is that all the decorations jump out and it all looks nicely weathered.

Put it on the wall en stock with supplies.

This was a tryout for a big door, so that will be the next adventure with metal paint!

If I would do this again, I would do some things a little different:

  • I would skip the first layer of primer
  • I would skip the first layer of black paint. So first glue on all the decoration and only than prime and paint
  • I would use a copper colour spay paint instead of the black
  • I would probably get away with just two layers of metal paint (I would still use the brushed on paint to get the structure)

So all in all I would use just five layers of paint instead of the nine layers I used now.