Let me start off by saying this transformation was a labor of love and was a total emotional roller coaster from start-to-finish. There were moments when halfway through I looked at myself all covered in wood filler and silently cursed myself out for some of the decisions I made. After all is said and done, I ended up feeling extremely accomplished and proud of all the hard work, labor and tears that went into transforming this bland dresser into its new gorgeous form.
To help you get started, here is a list of the supplies you will need:
- Mitre Box with Saw
- Tape Measure
- Liquid Nails * You can purchase it cheaper at Walmart or Home Depot
- Utility Knife
- Pole Wrap * I needed 2 of these total
- Drawer Pulls
- Paint Stir Sticks * These are the ones I used but I’d recommend getting some that are higher quality
- Stainable Wood Filler
- Minwax Wood Finishing Cloths
- Iron on Edgebanding
- Iron
- Sander
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If you have to know one thing about me it’s that I am a planner. I’ll sit and write out a detailed list of every step I need to complete and all of the materials needed before I start any project. Somewhere along the way all of that went out the window and I was flying by the seat of my comfy sweatpants and making things up as I went. My rational and well thought out self must have taken a long awaited vacation because I don’t know who this girl was that did this project or how it turned out looking as nice as it did.
First I started out by measuring the length and width of each drawer and marked my cut lines accordingly.
When it was time to cut everything I rolled the pole wrap as tight as it would go and went to town with my mitre saw and repeated until everything was finished. This step is no joke and you will get an arm workout. Days later you will experience a pain like no other. This pain will last for a few days and you will silently curse yourself out every time you have to put a shirt on or pull your hair up in your signature messy bun.
After all of your cuts are completed now is the time to grab your trusty tube of liquid nails and start adhering the cut pole wrap to your drawer fronts and the sides of the dresser. If a piece is too long you can use a carpenter knife to cut along the edges and no one will be able to tell.
Now is the time to sit back and admire all of your hard work but not too long because you’re not nearly as close to the finish line as you’d like to be. Grab your trusty tape measure and drill then start carefully measuring and adding the drawer pulls. Double and even triple check that these are even and line up on each drawer.
This is the part of the makeover where I admit I got a little too cocky. I had plans of using scrap wood for the top of this makeover but one night in a sleep deprived state of mind I got the idea to try and attempt to make a herringbone top using paint stir sticks. Yes, you read that right – Paint Stir Sticks. I do not know what I was thinking but over to Amazon I went to place my order and wait 2 days in anticipation for their arrival. When they arrived they were horrid looking, bowed and were not straight in the slightest. Did this stop me? Heck no! Instead I mustered on and began sawing them into 6 inch pieces and started wood gluing them to the top of the dresser while weighing them down with anything around the house I could find in hopes they wouldn’t pop up. After everything dried and settled I covered the gaps with a generous amount of Wood Filler. Some might even say I used too much but I like to live life on the edge so I kept applying it while living in denial at the fact that I’d have to sand everything when I was done.
Now comes the part I dreaded with every fiber of my being – Sanding. Dust flung everywhere as did a few profanities but I chugged along because at this point I was far too determined to get this project done so I could dream up more makeovers and furniture flips to drive myself crazy. Once I was able to gently slide my hand across the top without feeling any grittiness or ending up with a palm of splinters I began to add the edge-banding to the side. This part was the least stressful of the whole makeover and took a total of 10 minutes.
The absolute final step is to stain the top. At first I admit I did not like that the color of the wood filler was still visible but in the end it ended up matching the frame of the artwork I hung above it so I’ll just go along with the notion that it was intentional. I will say that once this project was officially finished I probably annoyed all of my friends with the amount of photos I sent them while patting myself on the back.
Onward and wayward to the next transformation,
Angeldwnsouth 