Faux Card Catalog

I think we have discussed that I have the patience of an ant... yes? Well I have watched, dreamed, hoped, prayed to find an old library card catalog for about 20yrs.  Ok, not 20, but it feels like Furevvahhh!!
You see, I had a stint as a middle school librarian post babies and fell in love with all things books.  We can revisit my librarian career at a later time as you are probably now picturing me with a bun, glasses and hunch back.  I don't have a hunch back!!
Anyhoo... the only card catalogs I have found have been super duper expensive and y'all know my CFO is not having that.  So what is a girl to do? Duh! Make my own!  Now if you want to get all technical, it is not a working card catalog- but it has at least stopped my shakes for having my very own.
We have owned this Ikea Hemnes Shoe holder for about 5 years now and it was a bit beat down as we mainly used it for diapers and baby gear and such in our front hall.  I love it because it is so slim and doesn't take up too much space- but it definitely needed a make-over so it was the perfect piece to give this idea of mine a try.
Here is the before:

And here is the after! yay!

And my little extra dash of cuteness will have to be added...

I am a huge fan of mixing metals and also the old with the new- so here is a fun pic of it paired up with my more modern Target rug- lots of fun ways to style this little lady!

The tutorial is fairly simple- I removed the drawers and gave them a light sanding.   I had bought 4  12x12 thin wood scraps from Hobby Lobby ($12) that I cut into 4 6x6's.  I then used liquid nails to glue them to each drawer front.  I then did a mixture of Annie Sloan Chalk Paints- primarily Paris Grey, with a bit of French Linen and Louis Blue.  I'd love to tell you what percents exactly but I just did it until I liked it- as I was going for a grey with a ting of blue color that would play well with gold hardware.  And I was not going for perfection- just a messy paint job!
One quick coat- then another and then a coat of polyacrylic.  I used it instead of wax for time reasons and because it gets a lot of traffic and I wanted to be able to wipe it down easily.

The hardware is where my cost became challenging.  It is not cheap to get the finger pull/label holder like the antiques had.  The best I was finding was about $5 for just one- and needing 16- that wasn't gonna happen.  So after some ridiculously long searching, I found some small craft (like scrap book) ones that were $6 for 20 so I ordered those from Amazon.  But they were super small- so I found the larger label hardware at Staples and then proceeded to combine the two.  I did Gold Rub n Buff on them both and then hot glued the small one under the large one.
End Scene.

I am just gonna say it... I love it.  I am going to be entering this in the Creating With the Stars Contest so I'm keeping my fingers crossed- but if you would care to hop over and click on it there starting March 3rd- it would be awesome!

Hope you are all having an amazing day!
xoxo
B

Linking To:

East Coast Creative- Creating With the Stars!
DIY Showoff