You’ve probably seen furniture out on the curb in your own neighborhood, but have you ever thought about reclaiming it and making it your own? Well, one YouTube creator named Katie Scott did just that. She said that she saw a really interesting-looking chest of drawers that her neighbor took out for the garbage truck to pick up, but she decided to take it home and give it a complete makeover.
You can check out the entire process right here:
The furniture had a bunch of raised panels on the drawer fronts, so she started out by prying those off to give it a much more seamless look. She then glued the drawers together using wood glue before she unscrewed the wood base that was attached to the bottom.
She also mentioned that she thoroughly cleaned the piece, and you can see from the beginning of the video that the poor chest of drawers was totally covered in dust. There was also a water-damaged top made of particle board that she completely removed.
Next, she cut a brand-new piece of ¾ inch plywood to replace the top of the chest that was damaged. She also filled in all of the old hardware holes with some wood putty and smoothed them down using a flat metal trowel.
She sanded the base and the legs of the chest of drawers using an electric sander to remove the old finish and expose the bare wood. She cut half-moon dowels and cut them down to the height of the top drawer and glued them to the front of the drawer to create a cool, textured fluted design.
While the dowels were drying on the drawer, she primed the cabinet body and the rest of the drawers of the chest using a sprayer. She chose a pretty pinky coral color to paint the dresser. While I personally don’t love pink furniture, it definitely gave the piece a completely new look right away.
She stained the feature drawer and used something called toner lacquer, which I assume means that it’s a wood lacquer with a slight tint to it. She repeated the same process on the base portion.
After everything was painted and stained, she sealed the entire thing using a water-based wood sealant. Once everything was completely dry, she drilled new hardware holes and installed some gorgeous bright gold drawer pulls with a simple, modern shape.
I have to admit, once she panned out and showed the entire completed piece, I was in awe at how beautiful it looked! I actually don’t mind the pink color, and the way she added a unique texture to the top drawer really made it pop.
I also love how she used a bit of natural brown wood color for that top drawer and the base for visual contrast. The sleek gold hardware really pulled it all together and took this once-trashed piece of furniture to a whole new level.
A lot of people loved this video, including viewer Linda Burt, who agreed with me about the pink! She said, “When you said you painted it pink, I pulled a face. But your project turned out beautifully. Well done!!”
A viewer named Jane also swooned, saying, “You are a magical furniture unicorn! This piece zoomed from shabby to chic from zero to magnificent, and then you took it to a whole nother level! Gorgeous darling!”
I have to say that this particular furniture makeover video was really inspiring. I am especially excited about the idea of adding those wooden dowels to the drawer fronts to create texture and a modern touch.
And yes, I also admit that the pink color turned out quite nice! The shape of the chest without those panels really makes it look modern and on-trend. Who knows, maybe I’ll do a quick drive through my own neighborhood this weekend to see what I can find. Maybe I’ll discover an old piece of furniture that I can transform.
