Painted Metal Filing Cabinet—Using BB Frösch in a Sprayer

PAINTED FILING CABINET | AFFORDABLE OFFICE MAKEOVER | HOW TO USE CHALK PAINT IN A SPRAYER

We scored this filing cabinet for free from someone who was moving. It’s great storage for the office but “Ma’s Files” and the boring color needed to go.

Make sure you have a super sweet professional set up like ours with drop cloths hanging from the garage doors you plan to paint in front of, haha!

Before any painting began we numbered the drawers on the back. I recommend doing this for anything with drawers, because they can often be slightly different, and you don’t want them to get mixed up when you go to put them back.

We also wiped down the filing cabinet. Any good household cleaner will do.

We sprayed the handles with this spray paint. I just had this on hand because we love gold!

We love how quickly a paint sprayer makes projects like these, so we used BB Frösch with our favorite Home Right Finish Max sprayer. If you don’t add BB Frösch Paint Transformer, your paint won’t stick, so don’t skip this part!

First, we mixed our BB Frösch Paint Transformer with water. The key here is to stir to a doughnut glaze consistency, then add more water after adding your paint (because you will need to thin slightly for use in a sprayer.) We mixed our powder and water in the hopper that comes with the sprayer because it comes with handy-dandy lines showing where to fill the paint to.

We planned to mix up half a quart of paint. Note: We would have used less paint had we brushed, but sprayers have overspray and typically use more paint. For half quart of paint, use 4 HEAPING Tablespoons of BB Frösch Paint Transformer with at least 6 Tablespoons of water (add a little more if the mixture is too thick or clumpy.)

If you use the Homeright Finishmax, your sprayer should come with a viscosity cup, which makes knowing how much to thin your paint a breeze. You want your paint to run through the entire cup at approximately 35 seconds. If it takes longer, your paint is too thick, so add 1/2 Tablespoon at a time until you get the right consistency.

Note: Paint brands, sprayers, and your idea of heaping tablespoons all differ, which make it impossible to have a hard and fast rule about exactly how much to thin your paint for use in a sprayer. It helps to refer to the directions that come with your sprayer.

You can see here we just poured the paint right into the hopper after mixing the paint transformer and water together. The color we used is a Benjamin Moore “Hale Navy,” but we had our friendly Home Depot paint guy mix it for us using Behr paint. Be sure to mix your paint and powder/water mixture WELL. You may want to run it through a paint strainer.

Can you see this coverage?! This is the SECOND coat! We’re tellin’ ya, our paint transformer is magic! We went one direction for the first coat the other direction for the second (horizontal then vertical).

We really let the paint cure before sealing. We waited about 2 hours. We are in a warm, dry state. If you are anywhere with humidity then wait longer.

We always recommend using a water based poly so it won’t yellow. This one was in the clearance bin because the can was dented. So, we gave it a try for this project. Once the filing cabinet was painted, we cleaned out the sprayer and then used it to spray on the poly. We used the same technique we used for painting. Follow the directions on the can to know how many coats to do and how long to wait between coats.

Note: You won’t need to thin your poly.

Once painted and sealed, Kami put the hardware back on. We are in love, and once again, negotiating over who gets this beauty for their office!

Alright, obsessed would be an understatement! This is the perfect touch to our home office.

Yup, we love what we do and we have a lot of fun doing it!

Be sure to always tag us in your BB Frösch Projects!