You may have noticed that rattan and woven materials are having a major moment right now. Over the past couple years, we’ve seen rattan shift from a boho staple to a versatile material that adds texture and blends seamlessly into a range of design styles. These days, I get so many questions about the Target cane TV stand we DIYed that I figure it’s time to put up a how-to!
When we renovated our kitchen and replaced our upper cabinets with open shelving, I needed to create an alternate storage solution to stow all our dishes and glassware. Fortunately, the footprint includes a little nook near the back door, which serves as the perfect spot for a small kitchen cabinet.
I didn’t want to spend a ton on the piece that would go there, especially since we’d just forked over a healthy sum on the renovation. But I also wanted something that would meet the style quotient of the rest of the space. When I spotted Target’s 55″ Minsmere Cane TV Stand, I fell hard for its woven texture and clean lines.
Not only was the Target cane TV stand the perfect size, but the $300 price tag was pretty attractive too. The only problem was that the natural wood color it came in didn’t fit the aesthetic of our kitchen—but I knew that with a coat of paint, this rattan kitchen cabinet could check all my boxes!
Transforming the Target Cane TV Stand
Step 1: Prime before assembly
The Target cane TV stand comes in a flat-pack format and requires assembly, which is actually ideal since you can more easily achieve a uniform finish when you first paint the separate pieces then assemble the cabinet. We primed using one coat of spray primer to avoid brush strokes.
Step 2: Paint Behr Cappuccino Froth—with a roller
I initially hoped to use spray paint for the gray topcoat as well, since I figured those woven doors would be murder to paint with a brush or roller. But then, when we put a coat of gray spray paint on the cabinet, we ran into two problems: first, I didn’t love the way the colored spray paint coated the wood. It was really hard to get a smooth, cohesive finish. And just as I feared, the woven doors were the trickiest part—even with the spray paint, they looked patchy and uneven.
If I’d absolutely loved the spray paint color, I probably would have tried harder to get the result I wanted. A few more coats may have done the trick. But the bigger problem was…
…every shade of gray spray paint I brought home with me was too similar in color to our gray tile floors. When placed in the kitchen, the cabinet blended in with the floors. It almost looked like the floor was growing up the wall, ha!
So I abandoned the spray paint and picked up a can of Behr Cappuccino Froth in an almost-matte eggshell finish at Home Depot. Behr Cappuccino Froth is a lovely shade of warm greige that perfectly complements our kitchen’s monochromatic palette.
We applied the paint to the smooth pieces of wood with a sponge roller. And after some experimentation, we found that using a wedge sponge to dab paint into the woven texture was the best way to achieve even coverage on the doors. It’s a bit of a tedious process to get full coverage on those doors, but worth it in the end!
Step 3: Change out the pulls
In addition to changing the color of the cabinet, we also relocated the door pulls. Moving the hardware from the middle of the doors to the top better matched the pulls in the rest of our kitchen.
These handles are the 2″ Rejuvenation Small Drawer Edge Pulls in brass. To attach them, Ivan drilled new holes for the brass pulls and used putty to fill the pre-drilled holes that the original cabinet came with. If you didn’t want to swap out hardware, you could easily just paint the handles the cabinet comes with, then attach them according to instructions.
As you can see here, the cabinet is nice and roomy with just enough space for our dishes! Also, the Minsmere collection has several other pieces (like a bookshelf and a desk!) and they’re all really fab. If you’ve got your eye on one but want to give it a custom touch, I highly recommend this little weekend DIY.
Get the Look
- 3-door cabinet 2. Behr paint 3. 2-door cabinet 4. Clare paint 5. 4-door cabinet 6. Sherwin Williams paint
Woven and cane furniture is trending right now, and this Target cane TV stand makes it easy to see why! Have you DIYed a rattan piece? Let me know your experience in the comments below!
Images: Eslee.