Upcycle it!

Tuis Home food editor Johané Neilson and her husband Allister revamped a second-hand melamine wall unit to create a bespoke wall-to-wall display cabinet, for less than R3 500!

- Johané Neilson

PROJECT NOTE

The second-hand cupboard still had a backboard attached that could be painted the same colour as the wall; this meant that any spaces between the shelves and the wall behind would look seamless.

1 Johané and Allister positioned the unit against the wall then cut and fitted new plywood shelves in the angled recess on the left of the unit; they were attached using L-shaped brackets. They filled in any gaps between the unit and the wall on the right with a length of wood finished with a quarter-round wood strip. Visible joints between old and new shelving were concealed with half-round strips (small nails were used to hammer them in place), spanning the wall-to-wall length. This added three-dimensional detail to the piece once painted and helps blend the old with the new. They finished with a new skirting board parallel to the floor and a rectangular box frame in the opening between the unit and the ceiling that lines up with the cornices on either side.