I did not have space to store my ironing board last year and searched for a cabinet with suitable interior space. I choice to buy a Brimnes cabinet after a thorough search. It had the space, but looks exactly like what it is, a wardrobe cabinet. Since I needed it to be in an open space between the kitchen and living room areas of my apartment, it was necessary to change its exterior appearance. It needed to look less like a wardrobe and more like a non-obtrusive storage cabinet.

Black Hat Feng Shui was driving my design choice as the area where the cabinet would be stationed was in the fame area of the apartment. The cabinet could be seen when the apartment door opened. I did not want to see the main recommended color (red) for the fame area everytime I entered the space and opted for the next best choice, which was wood.

The colors Ikea offered were black, gray, and white. I decided to hack the cabinet and add wood to the recessed portion of the doors.In Black Hat Feng Shui Black equals water, extinguishing fire. White equals metal, which was okay, but I did not want that color and I felt seam voids would be very noticeable if something went wrong with attaching paper. Gray was the remaining option.

Since by objective was to maximize wood in the fame area, I chose wood self-adhesive wallpaper and bought thin wood planks to place in the recessed area of the door. I considered buying lengths of plywood that could be cut to fit the door, but decided against it due to cost and not having the storage for saving the leftovers.

After I putting the Brimnes cabinet together, I realized the door handle style did not work well with the new look and I designed another handle. The center of the handle is slightly recessed, inspired by the cabinet doors. The handle was an easy 3D print with one color change on a Bambu A1 printer. The file for the handle is available on Cults3d for a small cost.

After attaching the wallpaper, I mounted the wood slats with 3M strips. I wanted them to be easy to remove, but discovered another advantage was the strips made them flush with the outer door frame.

I moved this year and despite having the cabinet covered well, the paper was knicked in a few places. I will be exchanging the paper for another one. Here are renders showing different styles that I am considering.