Old Dresser Gets a Faux Card Catalog Makeover

Hello friends! I hope your August is off to a good start so far. We have been getting the boys ready to go back to school next week and as usual I can’t believe how quickly the summer has flown by us!

This week I am going to be sharing how I transformed two identical dressers with completely different looks.

Supplies Used:(Affiliate links may be provided for convenience. For more info, see my full disclosure here.)

I found this dresser on Marketplace along with a twin for $10 each. This one was covered in a goopy stain, but I immediately saw its potential knowing that it was solid wood!

I knew that I wanted the top to be left as wood which meant that I needed to strip it all the way down to the raw wood. I started with Citristrip to cut down on sanding efforts.

After scraping and using mineral spirits to remove the residue, I went back over with the electric sander to get it completely sanded down.

Since I planned on adding faux drawer fronts to the drawers, I only needed to cover the edges of the handle holes. I could have started with Bondo, but that stuff is not cheap! I came up with a more cost efficient method where I started with a piece of scrap wood and some drywall mud as a base and let it dry before going over each area with Bondo to make it nice and smooth.

I also applied Bondo to repair several damaged areas. After sanding the Bondo, I scuff sanded the drawers and the base of the dresser. Then it was time to add the faux drawers. I used some eucalyptus hardboard and cut them down into 7” squares on the miter saw.

I attached them with wood glue and nails, then filled all of the holes with spackle and sanded before applying a coat of primer.

I sprayed two coats of paint on the base, but I wanted the the faux drawers to stand out with a contrasting color so I removed them and painted them by hand. I started by rolling the lighter color on the squares, then went back and painted the darker color by hand.

It was very time consuming but the end results made it worth it! Once I was done I popped the drawers back in sealed it all up by spraying two coats of polyacylic.

We attached card catalog pulls to each of the squares—doing it as a team made it go so much faster since I could hold in place while Anthony drilled!