Card Catalog - Ikea Hack

Just last week I was talking about incorporating vintage card catalogs into your home, and just this morning I stumbled across this awesome Ikea Hack to make your own card file drawers!

This Post at The Painted Hive gives you the details on making the very inexpensive (and cheap looking) Moppe Drawers from Ikea into this lovely, antique-y looking card catalog for your desk.

Use a little stain, get some cute brass label holders, flip the drawers backwards, and voila!  I may have missed a step in there, but it's all very easy - pretty much a 20 minute project.

I also think these would be awesome outside of an office environment. Wouldn't these be great to hold recipes in a kitchen, or hold makeup, or q-tips, or other bathroom supplies?

Seemed like the other trick to making them appear authentic was to sand the corners down a bit so they looked worn, and using Danish oil for a slight sheen... who knew?!

After a quick search online, I'm seeing these drawers available only on the UK Ikea site, however they may have a different name here.

I'll report back on what I find!

Re-purposing a Card Catalog

The public library is no longer the only place for the card catalog as is evidenced by the many MANY stylish spaces that use these pieces.

I feel that the apothecary table (made popular by Pottery Barn, and then made REALLY popular by that episode of Friends) was the beginning of making these types of pieces with many little drawers popular for home decor.  If you don't get my reference to Friends, you HAVE to watch this clip...

While the card catalog isn't super functional for someone looking for serious storage (let's be honest, you aren't going to store linens, plates, or anything much larger than an index card in these bad boys) they bring a lot of character to a space, and for smaller things (art supplies, kitchen utensils, crafting materials, etc) they could prove as functional as they are lovely!

They look great in a hallway... as is evidenced by this photo...

Eclectic Spaces by London Paint And Wall Coverings Sian Zeng

And here, the card catalog brings a "cool factor" to this otherwise traditional kitchen...

Modern Kitchen by Nashville Kitchen And Bath Hermitage Kitchen Design Gallery

Here, a smaller natural wood finished card catalog serves as small buffet tucked into a corner of this simple dining room...

Spaces

And it fits in quite well with a rustic / urban living room - aren't all those brass handles fabulous??

Eclectic Spaces by Portland Lighting Schoolhouse Electric

And while it clearly works well in urban spaces, it works equally as well in a country-chic bedroom...

Contemporary Bedroom by New York Architect David Howell Design

A quick Craigslist search just now proved that these are not easy to come by.  Not a single listing matched what I was looking for...

Wouldn't it be kind of cool to try to mimic the look of one of these cool card catalogs on a double-doored cabinet, using small drawer front facades, and loads of brass pulls?

Ooh, I'm having some good ideas!!!