DIY Dresser Making 1.

This past summer, I made two dressers for me and my husband. We have shared one dresser ever since I came to America (I'm from Korea as you can tell from my blog name) because we only lived in studios before we bought a house. Now, we have own our bedroom and don't have to save any space for other stuff. So I decided to have two dressers and make them by myself!

How To Build A Dresser From Scratch

1. Planning

I started by planning what color I wanted for the dressers, what color door knobs or pulls I wanted, how many drawers I would need, and how big the dresser should be.

Since our room color is a warm-tone white, I wanted the drawers to be a cool-tone white to contrast with the wall. I also wanted the top to be a natural wood color to give a little warmth so it didn't look too cool. Door knob color was easy to pick because all the hardware in our room was gold. So I wanted them to be gold too to match. For the size, I didn't really have a choice because our room has a really steeply sloped ceiling. The height had to be as high as possible without hitting the downside of the ceiling but still having a little space above the dresser. According to the determined height, I could also plan how many drawers I could have.

So, I sketched the dresser on my computer and specified the size of each piece of wood for the construction. Then I calculated how many wood boards I needed to purchase.

For example, I needed these for each dresser....

- 2 side panels : 32.625 inches (H) x 16.25 inches (W)

- 1 back panel : 32.625 inches (H) x 36 inches (W)

- 3 support panels for top and bottom : 34.5 inches (W) x 4 inches (D)

- 8 panels for fronts and backs : 2 of 4.25 inches (H) x 32.5 inches (W), 6 of 7 inches (H) x 32.5 inches (W)

- 8 panels for sides : 2 of 4.25 inches (H) x 15 inches (W), 6 of 7 inches (H) x 15 inches (W)

- 4 panels for bottoms : 14 inches (D) x 32.5 inches (W)

- 4 panels for doors : 1 of 6.25 inches (H) x 35.875 inches (W), 3 of 8.5 inches (H) x 35.875 inches (W)

- 2 panels : 18.75 inches (D) x 36 inches (W)

[blue = 3/4 plywood, red = 1/2 plywood, green = edge-glued pine wood]

2. Materials

I bought what I needed according to the plan. I went to Lowes and got some 4 x 8 plywood and edge-glued pine boards. It all depends on the location, but Home depot in my town usually has only birch or oak plywood which is kind of pricey. However, Lowe's has maple and poplar which is cheaper and good for paint projects. So I always get either maple or poplar from Lowe's.

After I got my plywood, I purchased legs and some hardware. I got 4 of 2" x 2" x 12" square cherry lumber for the legs, 8 mounting plates for the legs, furniture pads, door knobs, corner braces, and drawer slides. (You can check the links where I purchased these at the end of this post.)

I planned to use Extra White (SW) paint, which I already had from a previous project, for the dresser except for the top, bottom, and the legs. For those parts, I created a color by mixing some stains and I will post about it separately.

3. Cutting

The first thing I did was cut the plywood boards. I left the edge-glued pine board for last because I wasn't sure how much overhang I wanted have until I built the base.

I cut every piece I needed with a circular saw. You can check out my previous post 'how to cut plywood with a circular saw' if it's your first time cutting plywood. The only thing I want to mention here is I also used a hole saw this time for the back panel. I don't have kids yet, but plan to have them in the future. In that case, I wanted to make sure all the furniture I make is kid-safe. So I was considering having tip-over brackets for the dresser, and for that I had to have a hole in the back side.

I drilled two holes and cut it in half so the back of each dresser could have two half circles for the brackets. You will be able to see a picture of this so you can understand what I mean.

I ended up not using the brackets for now though because it was pretty heavy with some stuff in it. But I will still consider installing them later when I have kids for their safety :)

4. Treating end grains and knots

Once I cut every piece, I sanded all of them with 220-grit sandpaper on the surface and end grains. The reason why I cared about the end grain was because I had to patch them with spackling paste to hide the plywood layers.

As far as I know, there are two main ways to hide those layers and some holes on plywood end grain. One is using edge banding which looks like natural wood. This is suitable if you are planning to stain it. The other is patching the end grain with drywall spackling or wood filler, and I always go with this method.

I prefer spackling paste to wood filler for the end grain because it is easier to sand.

I just scooped some spackling with a putty knife and spread it on the end grain. Then let it dry and sanded it with 220-grit sandpaper until it smoothed out.

I also patched some knots that didn't make the surface feel smooth.

5. Priming and painting

Priming and painting usually is done after assembling the furniture base. However I personally do this process before building the base. It all depends on your preference because there is no wrong or right way. Actually.. now that I think about it, there are more cons than pros about the way I work, but I still prefer priming and painting before assembling.

Anyway, I started priming the spackling patched part (end grains, knots) with a brush first.

The reason why I started with a brush was that the spackling sometimes peels off when I used a roller first. So one coat of priming those areas with a brush was kind of like sealing the spackling before roller priming. After it dried, I did two coats of priming where it should be painted with a roller except for the outside of the side panels (I will explain why later) and sanded with a 220-grit sandpaper in-between.

Sherwin-Williams-Emerald-paint-for-furniture

The paint I used after priming was Sherwin Williams Emerald urethane trim enamel. I did two coats of it and sanded with 400-grit sandpaper in-between coats.

I love SW paint, especially Emerald urethane trim enamel and Duration. I've used both for different woodworkings and I think both are equally good as long as the surface you are planning to paint is well primed.

However, I still want you to check their specs on the website, read the details or watch some youtube videos that explain the differences between them before choosing the right paint for your projects. (Well, I can definitely tell you that Emerald is more expensive than Duration.)

6. Building the base.

To start building the base, I screwed in two front support panels (one on the top and bottom), and one back support panel on the bottom. I screwed them in from the outside of the each side panel. You can see what I am talking about in the final picture of this post.

After screwing them in, I patched the holes with spackling and sanded once it dried. This is why I didn't prime and paint the outside of the side panels earlier. I had to wait to do that after screwing in those support panels. The screw holes usually wouldn't get filled with one patching, so I usually patch one more time. Just don't rush anything even though every step takes time, especially if you are an amateur like me. When you rush because you want to finish fast, mistakes happen and fixing them later takes longer.

Finally, I nailed the back panel into the side panels and back support panel on the bottom. Since the back side is not a visible part, I didn't patch those holes this time.

This was it! Like I said in the beginning, I needed two dressers, so I had to build two of them. By the way, I was supposed paint the outside of the side panels before I screwed in the back panel, but I was in a rush and had to paint after. Like I said, don't rush ;) Fortunately, it was not a serious mistake, but I just had to re-paint the end grains of the back panel.

I hope this post was helpful, and I will come back with the next post soon!