Here’s one reason among many why people are understandably deterred from utilizing a filing cabinet: their horrendous ugliness. Times may have evolved, but those cabinets have not. Ya got yer black filing cabinet or yer gray filing cabinet. Pick your poison and prepare for a depressive spell as bleak as the aforeblogged color range each time you need to do some filing.

Luckily, there are ways to evade the filing cabinet non-blues blues. By no means should you expect retailers to do it for you. By the power of your own handiwork, it is possible to transform your cabinet from abismal to, well, as close to exciting as a filing cabinet could ever get. Here’s how:

Paint that bad boy.

A coat of spray paint can instantly and vastly improve the looks of your filing cabinet. Pick your favorite color of the rainbow and get to spraying.

Note: make sure you the spray paint you select is suitable for metals, and that you apply a primer beforehand. Or skip the extra step by opting for a spray paint and primer in one. Then the usual rules of painting apply: dust and wash the cabinet, tape off any areas you don’t want painted, wear protective clothing, etc.

Add a design.

In addition to altering the overall color of your cabinet, you can also add a design element. The owner of the filing cabinet below used a stencil to spruce her’s up, which I think we can all agree was pretty genius.

Dress it. 

If you’re looking for a new color and pattern in one, then covering your cabinet in wallpaper or fabric may be just the thing.

Measure, measure, and pre-cut your covering. Then apply a spray adhesive onto your cabinet, affix your material and voila!

And now the verdict: Have you? Would you? Spill beans!