About new life for old things? Today we will talk about how to give grandma’s old chest of drawers a new life and make it a very remarkable part of the interior of your apartment. It's safe to say that many people have furniture on appearance not exactly neat. A large number of scuffs, chips, scratches, and sometimes you just want to update the interior. These types of furniture often include chests of drawers in which various clothes are stored. Everyone wants to throw away such a chest of drawers, but either they don’t get around to it, or it’s a wedding gift from relatives and it’s a pity to get rid of it. But don’t rush into the decision to dispose of it, because the chest of drawers can be a good item for a small update. Any chest of drawers can be changed beyond recognition, and this article will discuss the possible options.
Covering an old chest of drawers with newspapers
Extravagance and creativity using simple and inexpensive means. All you need for work is abrasive sponges, glue, flat brushes, sharp knife, black and white newspaper, white spray paint and clear acrylic varnish. Now you need to clean all surfaces of the chest of drawers using an abrasive sponge, and then wipe it with a damp cloth to remove dust and other contaminants. The next step is to apply glue to the treated surfaces using prepared brushes. Distribute the glue evenly and thin layer. Then we begin to glue sheets of newspapers in any way. There is no need to be shy about your imagination. After the pasted newspapers have dried, it is better to cover them acrylic varnish for longer service and, of course, beauty. And paint the dresser handles White color. This is how you get a beautiful chest of drawers in black and white.
What about textured wallpaper?
A chest of drawers is perhaps the most versatile piece of furniture. It can be found in the bedroom, in the hallway, in the living room, and sometimes even in the kitchen... But stores usually sell standard models - without any special design delights. And this means everything is in your hands. Want to update your old dull chest of drawers? Have your eye on a new one, very comfortable, but outwardly banal? Take a look at this selection of master classes to learn how to decorate this piece of furniture in an original way. And also a low cabinet with doors and even a bedside table.
So, how can you decorate the front of a chest of drawers? We have divided the options selected for this release into 2 categories:- decoration methods that do not require painting (the first five);
- original ideas with coloring (five more).
What will you choose?
1. Photo wallpaper
They are suitable not only for walls, but also for the front of the chest of drawers. Especially one with a lot of drawers and no handles (for example, MALM from IKEA). Measure each of the drawers, then cut the wallpaper to size and apply it to the fronts. It is especially impressive when combined with wall wallpaper on the same theme. If you want more practicality, coat the top with furniture varnish.
2. Sticker with large flowers
Vintage watercolors of flowers make the perfect decoration for anything, including your chest of drawers. Find a suitable picture on the Internet (the photograph must be in high resolution), download, order the image printed on self-adhesive film, and then attach it to the front of the chest of drawers. If your chest of drawers does not have doors, but drawers, cut the film into equal parts before gluing. If you want to make this process as easy as possible, just buy a large multi-color sticker with a matte surface.
3. Classic sockets (for cabinet doors)
Do you like classic stucco and palace-style decorations? Then this idea is for you. Decorative rosettes made of polystyrene foam or (better) polyurethane foam can be found at any hardware store. Paint them white and cover the centers with lilac (to get desired color mix purple paint with white). And then glue it to the front of the chest of drawers. It looks elegant and unobtrusive.
4. Fabric with a pattern
Looks like an expensive designer chest of drawers. But in fact it is very easy and inexpensive to do. All you need is a fabric with a cute pattern and double-sided tape. Cut the fabric into pieces the right size, glue to the facades, leaving an allowance of about a centimeter. Don't forget to cut a small hole for the handle. This idea is perfect for any furniture - a chest of drawers, a bedside table (as in the photo), a low cabinet. And even for a large closet, as you can see for yourself by looking at the master class from our other selection - (see guide No. 3).
5. You can see better from above
Did you inherit a low chest of drawers with a wide tabletop from your grandmother? Elevate this retro furniture by gluing several pieces of wrapping (gift) paper with an interesting pattern to the tabletop. If desired, the remaining elements (facade and legs) can be painted to match the paper. Tip: use masking tape as an edging to avoid unevenness.
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If you are ready to actively use paints, here are 5 more ideas for decorating a chest of drawers with an original coloring of its facade.
6. Colors of the sky
Shades of blue are calming, balance out overly bright tones and suit almost any interior. If you have a tall chest of drawers with lots of drawers, paint each one a different shade of blue to create a gradient effect. In addition to being beautiful, it is also practical - now you won’t forget which drawer contains what.
7. Sunset on the coast
Remember vacations at the seaside, with picturesque sunsets and catching the sun in your palm? This beautiful natural phenomenon can also decorate your home - in the form of a drawing on the chest of drawers. Anything you need - spray paint matching colors and masking tape. Paint one half of each drawer, covering the other with tape, then repeat for the second. To complete the look, replace the handles with beautiful driftwood sanded by the sea.
8. Sea waves
Subtle patterns, like ripples on the water from a light breeze, are easier to make than you think. You will need an embossed paint roller (made of rubber), which is used to paint the walls, turning them into texture, plus two types of paint - blue (about 1 cup) and white (1 can). First, paint the chest of drawers white (2 layers), wait until it dries completely. And then apply the pattern to the surface of the drawer fronts, moving the roller along the long side. Your chest of drawers is already white, but do you like the idea? The task is simplified to the limit: just make the patterns!
9. Hot streak
Zigzag is a universal pattern for anything. And it's much easier to do than you think. Stick on the right places masking tape, use a cutter to give it a zigzag shape. Prime the exposed area with white. When dry, remove the tape and paint the remaining part bright green (using masking tape for the finished part).
10. Under the mask
Do you want to paint your chest of drawers with an interesting design, but you don’t have artistic talent? Use stencils. Apply paint to the workpiece, press it, remove when dry. In this way you can create even those patterns that seem complex to you.
READ ALSO: HOW TO MAKE HANDLES FOR DOORS OR FURNITURE YOURSELF. TOP 17
1. Floral print
2. Add fabric to the sides of the drawers
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3. Decorate drawers with wallpaper
You might also be interested - 45 Ways to Update Your Closet with Wallpaper.
4. Use lace
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5. Apply paint to the lacquered chest of drawers
30+ Ways to Use Leftover Paint Wisely.
6. Memorable dates on the chest of drawers
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7. Or your favorite songs
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8. Or favorite cities (streets)
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9. Caravan from a chest of drawers
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10. Use cabinet drawer handles for filing cabinets.
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11. Striped accent
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12. Use painted toys as pens
Read detailed instructions. You might also be interested - How to make handles for doors or furniture yourself. TOP 17.
13. Or their halves
14. Blue milk
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15. Paint the chest of drawers in a metallic color.
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16. Bold Ombre Style
Read detailed instructions. You might also be interested - 33 Examples of walls with ombre effect + Master class.
17. Use a stencil to create an original design
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18. Another option using stencils
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19. Add a Geometric Pattern to the Top of the Dresser
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20. Use wood strips to line drawers
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21. Replace drawers with baskets
22. Cover the boxes with maps of different countries of the world
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23. Or both
24. Ombre dresser style
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25. Ombre...
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26. Another ombre option...
27. Use magnetic paint
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28. Use different shades of nail polish
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29. Strictly and tastefully
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30. Run colorful stripes along the entire chest of drawers
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31. Sunny accent
You might also be interested - how to make a simple cabinet out of plywood.
32. Cover the chest of drawers with newspapers. Why not?
33. Scallops
34. Charming patterns on drawers
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35. Update your dresser with gift wrap
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36. Use old rope instead of handles
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37. Funny mustachioed chests of drawers
38. Optical illusion
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39. Bright circles on the chest of drawers
40. Or triangles
41. Use nails with heads
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42. Cross stitch effect
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43. Ombre...
44. For lovers of sailing
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45. Stylized chest of drawers
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46. Cover the chest of drawers with fabric
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47. Cover with foil
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48. Don't be afraid to use bright colors
49. Ombre...
50. That time when doodles look organic
51. Add brass brackets and handles
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52. Create a Colorful Texture on Drawers
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53. Marine chest of drawers
54. Let's experiment...
55. Use house numbers as handles
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56. Add miniature wheels
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57. Let's experiment...
58. Add vinyl letters
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59. Bright and colorful chest of drawers
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60. Bright geometric patterns
61. Create fancy shapes
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62. Get rid of drawers
63. Another option for geometric patterns
64. Colorful chests of drawers
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65. Leopard notes
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66. Don’t forget about the decor of the inside surfaces of the drawers
67. Color contrast
68. Mix prints
69. Let's experiment...
70. Use colored pencils as lining
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71. Sea shades
72. Use leather instead of ordinary pens
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73. Landscape dresser
74. Mirror chest of drawers
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75. For UK fans
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76. Family photo
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77. Contrast stripes
78. New legs for an old chest of drawers
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Soviet-era furniture - walls, cabinets, chests of drawers - is not beautiful, but reliable and strong. Well, I just can’t bring myself to take it to the landfill. And rightly so. It is very easy to update it, giving it a completely new sound and modern look. Remaking cabinet-type furniture may not be very difficult: there are materials that can significantly change the appearance with little effort. Most easy way— change color and accessories. Everything is clear with the fittings - choose what suits your style best, and the color can be changed in two ways - paint and glue film (or wallpaper).
Remaking an old wall: changing the design
Covering old furniture with self-adhesive film is the easiest option for changing the decor. Film is available today in both plain and color, different colors, textures and shades. There is no point in gluing a film with a wood pattern; otherwise, it is in trend today. But plain or with a pattern - this is what can turn an old wall into new furniture. The steps are simple, but the work requires care. But the result is excellent. See two photos. The first one shows the old Soviet wall before the renovation, the second one shows it after.
Updating old furniture wall- before and after
Now about how it was updated. Compacted furniture self-adhesive film was used, cream color, matte surface. The open part of the old wall was closed with glass doors; a translucent matte film was used for the glass. The edging is furniture layout (also self-adhesive) chrome color. The order of work is as follows:
- Everything that can be removed, you remove and disassemble. Remove old fittings.
- Surfaces must be clean and free of grease. This is easier to achieve with a soft cloth soaked in dishwashing detergent. Then everything is washed away warm water with a little vinegar. Wipe with a dry cloth.
- Cut out the details. It is better to cut the film 8-10 mm larger. The remains are then cut off with a paper knife.
- Spray the part to be glued with water from a spray bottle. On a wet surface, the film can be moved if something goes wrong. You can even peel it off without damaging it.
- Removed from film protective layer, carefully lay it out. Once leveled, begin to smooth soft cloth from the middle to the edges. Try not to have any bubbles. To do this, you need to move gradually, without jumping from place to place.
- If there is still a bubble, you can pierce it with a thin needle approximately in the middle. Then expel air from the edges of the bubble to the hole and rub the puncture site.
- Having glued the film, take a clean thin cotton cloth, spread it on top and iron it with a warm iron (medium heat).
- We glue the trim and install new handles.
This is the sequence of work with every detail. It’s the same with glass, you just need to glue it to the inner surface. After assembly you have a renewed wall. This technique can be used for any items: chest of drawers, bedside tables, wardrobe, etc.
For example, after a successful experiment with the wall, they redid it in the same way old wardrobe and added it to the right. Now the entire wall is occupied. You can update your kitchen set in the same way: apply self-adhesive film and replace the handles.
There is a second way. It is a modification of the proposed method, but it is simpler and not so labor-intensive. Only the doors are covered, not with film, but with non-woven wallpaper. The wallpaper is glued with PVA glue. To prevent the edges from riding up, the parts are cut 5 mm smaller on all sides. It turns out a kind of edging. Everything looks good (example in the photo below).
What's good about this method: it's easy to change the decor. Tired of the old appearance, they tore off the wallpaper and put on new ones. Despite the fact that the method seems frivolous, the appearance is maintained for several years. Its author even tried it on kitchen set. Only the wallpaper on top is coated twice with PVA glue. In this case, the cabinets can be washed. It is important to apply the varnish layer evenly, without sagging; there are no other difficulties.
Sometimes wallpaper is varnished. But before you do this, try it on a scrap piece: see how they react to it.
When choosing a varnish, you need to remember that acrylic and cellulose varnishes remain transparent after drying, while polyurethane varnishes turn yellow after time. Also, polyurethane is almost not softened by solvents: it can only be removed mechanically (from wood - cleaned with sandpaper).
Dresser update
The old chest of drawers had stood for who knows how many years in the attic, but it was very strong and reliable, it had not dried out one bit, only the polish was cracked. It is much stronger in strength than modern products. This is a feature that is inherent in old, Soviet-era furniture. It is not very detailed (to put it mildly), but after standing for several decades in bad conditions, remains strong. Remaking a chest of drawers is more complex: two techniques were used: painting, and then decorating using polyurethane moldings and wallpaper.
Step 1. We remove the fittings and remove the old coating. In some places the polishing was scraped off, in others it was sanded with sandpaper. The chips were covered with wood putty and waited until it dried. At the final stage, everything was cleaned with fine-grain sandpaper. At the same time, the chest of drawers became the same as in the photo below.
This is after it was puttied and leveled with sandpaper
Step 2. Installation of polyurethane moldings. When choosing moldings, make sure that they are not bulky: too thick ones will look very rough on a small chest of drawers. They should be no wider than 5 cm and as narrow as possible when looking at them in profile.
The purchased polyurethane moldings were carefully cut, the corners were filed at 45°. (). The pattern match must be perfect. We glue them on PVA. For reliability, you can additionally secure it with screws with wide heads. A small recess is made under them, after the self-tapping screw is screwed in, the hole is covered with putty. Try to ensure that the putty immediately lays down perfectly (you can correct it with a wet finger), since it is problematic to clean off dried putty.
Moldings are glued and mounted on self-tapping screws
Step 3. Everything is treated with a primer. You can use PVA glue diluted with water in a ratio of 1:2. After the primer dries, paint (two layers). For this case, acrylic paint was chosen water based. The color is coffee with milk, although it looks completely different in the photo. Color rendering is inaccurate.
This is after the second application of paint. Cute
Step 4. For decoration, wallpaper was chosen whose coating was made using the silk-screen printing technique. Pieces are cut to the size of the inside of the frames from the moldings and glued to PVA. After the glue has dried, the entire chest of drawers is coated twice with water-based varnish.
Step 5. And the last to be installed are new legs (furniture wheels) and handles.
We install the handles and legs)) The updated chest of drawers is completely different from the one you saw in the first photo.
As you can see, complex work No. Everything is really elementary. But all processes require accuracy - the appearance depends on it. You can also update an old wardrobe in the same way. Get a set for the room. Stylish and original.
When updating furniture, the worst thing is if the surface is varnished. The varnish takes a long time and is difficult to remove. If the surface is smooth and the polishing is not damaged, you can apply primer for complex surfaces and paint after drying. This greatly speeds up the process of painting lacquered furniture.
If you have children and a cottage or yard, you may be interested in reading with a lot of photos. And about
How to update an old nightstand
In the photo gallery below you can see the process of restoring an old polished bedside table. First, the old polish was removed from it, puttyed, sanded and after processing it was painted twice acrylic paint. Then paper with an interesting design was glued to the doors (it was a gift paper bag). Once dry, the whole thing was coated with two coats of semi-gloss acrylic varnish.
The sequence of work is not difficult if you know how to do it. All processes will repeat the sequence of actions that you saw in the example of updating the chest of drawers. The result is also impressive.
Remodeling furniture with your own hands is a painstaking task, but the result is worth it. Below is a photo of a bedside table restored using a simple method: it is covered with embossed wallpaper, and varnish is applied twice on top.
Table makeover
Using the same technology, banal Coffee table can be turned into modern item interior IN in this case it was covered with wrapping paper. It is dense, adheres well and does not become limp when applying varnish.
Before starting work on decorating the table top, the legs of the old table and the edges of the table top were painted light color: this way it fits better with the new design style. Then the process of its transformation began.
When pasting, the panel is cut out significantly larger than the dimensions of the tabletop. It's necessary. The paper is glued to PVA and rolled with a roller so that there are no lumps or blisters. The surface must be absolutely smooth.
After sticking it, take it sandpaper with fine grain (it is more convenient to work if it is attached to a block). By running it along the edge, they bend and at the same time separate the excess paper.
Even cutting with a guillotine will not give you a fairly even edge. And with this method, it turns out professionally designed. There is no smell of amateur activity.
After the glue has dried, the surface is coated twice with a thin layer of varnish. It should be applied with a soft brush in a small amount. Layers are applied in different directions: first along the long side, then across.
Furniture remodeling: photo ideas
Remaking furniture with your own hands is a creative endeavor. Even something boring can be made into something great thing. And it is not at all necessary to repeat exactly what you saw. A lot of useful ideas comes during the execution of the “project”. It’s just a pity that some of what was planned turns out to be not as attractive as it seemed. Try it, experiment. Good modern technologies allow this to be done at minimal cost.