Seriously, contact paper.

Contact paper, scissors, an exacto knife and about an hour of time is what it took to make a regular old filing cabinet (that had seen better days) cute.

 

I'm not going to lie and say it was soooo easy and there were no bubbles or creases... because there were LOTS of bubbles and creases. (LOTS!) But it wasn't hard, and for the couple bucks I spent on the contact paper I figured I wasn't going to be heartbroken if it didn't work out. So I smoothed and smoothed, and I poked pin holes and rubbed out the bubbles... and you can see a crease on the side - but that's OK... people won't see that! ; )  It's our secret.