A Refurb Project: Craft Dresser

For this project you'll need:

A sense of imagination
Bargain Hunting Skills

Oh!
  and a dresser

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We've been in our home for about 6 months and I still haven't fully moved into my craft "room".  Our bedroom is big enough so we're using both our dressers; which means I lost my craft storage to clothing.  So, like any good DIY'er I decided to take this opportunity to hunt down a used dresser with good bones to refurbish for my craft space.

Folks are doing all sorts of things with dressers these days. I've seen them painted, stenciled, altered into benches, shelves, dog food holders, and so many other creative uses.  With so many choices, my refurbishing plan is to maintain the existing dresser and redecorate it with a combination of paint and a patterned covering for the fronts of the dresser drawers.

Like any good bargain hunter I canvassed multiple estate sales, garage sales, curb sides, and lots of thrift stores.  After a few months I finally came across this beauty at one of our local ARC thrift stores.  She's got eight drawers and lovely curves that I see as the perfect canvas for my refurbishing ideas (insert that need for imagination here!).

the blank canvas, an 8 drawer dresser

With the dresser in hand, my hunt switched to finding an inspiring pattern to cover some of the drawers in.  I searched all over the interwebs and finally found the pattern that called to my inspirational sensibilities at Spoonflower.  Spoonflower is a great site that I can see myself using again since they give the option of purchasing patterns on multiple formats (wrapping paper, fabric, wallpaper, etc.).  I decided to purchase my pattern of choice as wrapping paper since that seems the easiest to adhere to the dresser drawer fronts.

my new favorite spray adhesive

Pretty much every refurbishing project involving wood starts the same way, with a light sanding to remove the existing finish and provide a clean surface to adhere the new products to.  After sanding it's important to remove the dust.  My favorite product to use are the tack cloths found in the paint section of your local box store.  Once the surface is clean, it's time to prepare the wrapping paper covering.

Through trial and error during previous projects, I learned the key to straight edges is to match only ONE edge to the piece you are covering and make the other three sides long (too big).  Once your piece is cut, follow the directions on your spray adhesive of choice and stick it down.  Then take a sharp knife, a straight edge and trim the long edges straight. Be sure to use the sharpest knife you have as a sharp knife is a safe knife.

trimming the excess and achieving a straight edge

keep excess on all sides, easier to trim for the straight edges

I ran out of wrapping paper after covering only four dresser drawers due to not planning out the paper use ahead of time (could have used Mr. DIY's thinking ahead skills here).  However, in my humble opinion the important part of any DIY project is to go with the flow, so I moved on to deciding what paint the remaining drawers should be covered in.  After being silly and agonizing over this paint choice, our local box store provided a color match paint based on the dark orange in the wrapping paper.

I've seen several folks paint not only the fronts of the dresser drawers but also the sides and interior of the drawers.  While I love the look, I don't love the amount of time involved; so it was a simple paint job for me and my craft dresser.  Now it's finished and living in our home, providing colorful inspiration and sufficient storage for my current stash of craft supplies.

Thanks for stopping by our neck of the DIY neighborhood. And as our favorite neighbor Mr. Rogers used to say, "You always make each day a special day for me, by just being you. There's only 1 person in this WHOLE world like you; that's you yourself, and people can like you exactly the way you are.  I'll be back next time. Bye-bye!"

Bye-bye neighbor!

The final product. My new craft supply storage.

A Dog House Part 4: Completed

another gift from the house,
 a bundle of leftover shingles

The final steps of our dog house build are finally here!

We learned how to put a roof on from Tom Silva of This Old House ("TOH") fame.  If you want some great tips on making roofing easy, I highly recommend checking out the How To section of the TOH website.

Mr. DIY cutting off the excess tar paper

plastic covering the tar strip

Each row of shingles contains a strip of tar down the middle.  The new row of shingles lies on top of the tar strips and as the sun heats the roof the tar melts and adheres the shingles together.

After laying the first row of shingles we realized the tar strips on these shingles were covered with a plastic film.  These shingles had been laying outside for who knows how many years so this plastic film was stuck tight and a real challenge to peel off.  At first, quite a few expletives filled the air. Then Mr. DIY discovered an efficient method to peel 'em utilizing our pocket knives, so thanks to him this tedious activity didn't add too much time to the project.

Once the roof was applied we added a few layers of paint and voila, the house is complete!  Mr. DIY has dreams of adding a few additional design touches to the exterior, so we might do a "return-to" blog in the future.

a final view from the porch

a final view from the front

that roof's on a hinge

Thanks for stopping by our neck of the DIY neighborhood. And as our favorite neighbor Mr. Rogers used to say, "You always make each day a special day for me, by just being you. There's only 1 person in this WHOLE world like you; that's you yourself, and people can like you exactly the way you are.  I'll be back next time. Bye-bye!"

Bye-bye neighbor!