John Kraft Inspired Cabinets

One day, my boss told me she was bored with the plain white particle board cabinets in her studio, showed me a video of John Kraft's work on a piano, and sent me to home depot to "go nuts". These were the results. Unfortunately I do not have photos of the projects before and during their completion, but I can still tell you how I did it - it was pretty straight forward and so simple!

So here is what I did:

1. First I sanded the particle board a little bit. Nothing too aggressive. I just wanted to give the surface a little bit of texture to ensure that the paint would stick to it.
2. I sketched out a rough idea of the shapes I wanted to create using a pencil. I also made a note of what colors I would use in each shape (I wrote a little letter to indicate the color on the cabinet so I wouldn't forget). This was helpful when I went to buy paint so that I knew how much of each color I would need. Since I knew I wouldn't need quite as much of the dark blue, I only bought the little sample size jar of it. Whereas a color like red that I used quite a bit, I bought a slightly larger container. The amount of paint you need, of course, is determined by the surface area you are trying to cover.
3. Using a regular paintbrush, I filled in the shapes with the paint. Again, since the surface of particle board is so slick, your paint will not stick to it in the same way it would stick to a wall. You will most likely have to used 2 or 3 coats. Also, try to get your edges as close together as possible. They don't have to be perfect since you will be going over the edges in black, but the smoother the lines, the better your black looks later. I found that using one of those black chisel sponge brushes worked well for creating smooth edges.
4. Using the chisel sponge brush, create thin borders with your black paint around all of the shapes. Mine came out to about 1/2 inch. This part can get surprisingly difficult. If you run into any problems or are extremely anal when it comes to smooth lines like I am, go back after all of the paint has dried and use a black sharpie to smooth out any bumpy lines. A paint marker would also work really well, I would imagine.

And voila you're ready to enjoy your own functional work of art! This was really such a great, easy and affordable (under $40) renovation to add a little something extra to your space!