Fish tank cabinets are ugly. FACT. I don’t understand why designers don’t put more thought into creating stylish pet furniture – there are some beautiful cat trees and play centres out there, don’t get me wrong, but most of them? Plain fugly. And when it comes to fish tanks it’s even more disheartening – just look at the picture below – that’s what my fish tank used to look like. Unless my home decor taste has stagnated some time in the 1970’s then I can’t see how this is meant to work in my bedroom. So I took my inspiration from this post & turned the hideous old-school fish tank cabinet into a fun vintage style faux metal piece!
What will you need?
✓ an old fish tank (or even a fairly new one – they are all just bloody ugly aren’t they!)
✓ a base paint of choice (I used Rust-Oleum Chalky Finish Furniture paint in Graphite – click HERE)
✓ a small pot of silver, orange and brass paint (I used Rust-Oleum’s Painter’s Touch – little 20ml pots – click HERE)
✓ two paint brushes – one larger one to paint the base and one small one (I recommend a watercolour brush) to paint the ‘rust’
✓ 2 vintage doors pulls (mine are from HERE)
✓ 40 adhesive cover caps (you can get them HERE, I got mine from Wilkos)
First of all, I wiped the cabinet clean to ensure there’s no dust or greasy marks (from Cookie’s dribble). Then I applied two coats of the base paint. Because it’s a chalk paint, the cabinet turned out completely matte which was ideal in order to achieve that faux metal vibe. Once completely dried, I marked where to stick the adhesive cover caps aka faux metal screws. I stuck them to the doors and painted them with some more chalk paint so they were matching the rest of the cabinet. Now this is where the fun starts – take your tiny brush and apply some silver – there’s no set pattern for this, just freestyle it! Silver goes everywhere where you can imagine natural tarnish to occur. Add some orange and brass (I mixed these two in places so the orange didn’t look too harsh) – use these two sparingly in places where tarnish would naturally turn into rust. Wait until the paint is completely dry and replace the door pulls. You can choose any pulls that go with your interior decor – I bought mine off E-bay but they also sell some pretty ones on Anthropologie (click HERE) and in TKMaxx. You can also take inspiration from this post and make your pulls from plastic animals, maybe fish? And tadaaah – your brand new fancy faux metal fish tank cabinet is finished!
