All dressed up: Convert curbside finds from eeeek! to chic
By Justina Blakeney
Published: May 20th, 2008 | 4:35pm
It seems storage space is always an issue in a creative studio. When I saw this wooden dresser curbside in my Williamsburg neighborhood, I promptly called my roomie to help me lug it up our four-floor walkup.
The dresser wasn't in the best shape. Some of the drawers had lost knobs and front pieces, the paint was chipped, and a couple of the drawers didn't open smoothly. But the price is right, it’s made of real wood (not composite), and, with the exception of a few drawer-pulls, all of the pieces were there.
The dresser originally contained 10 drawers — four smaller drawers and six larger ones. I didn't need all of that drawer space, so I decided to convert the left half of the dresser into shelves, where I could store larger, bulkier items. After working out the details of my design, I looked around my live-work space to see what I could use to transform my “new” dresser.
Stuff I found lying around
• almond-colored paint
• four small wheels
• scrap fabric
• small curtain rod
Tools
• staple gun
• screwdriver
• hammer
• sewing machine (but the curtain can easily be sewn by hand)
• painting tools (the usual: brushes, cloth, pan)
Let’s get started
1. I thoroughly scrubbed the dresser. Curbside finds are awesome, but you never know where the furniture was living before you got it, so be sure to give your new furniture some elbow-grease. In order to paint the piece, it’s important to remove dust and dirt.
2. I put the dresser on its back and screwed the wheels into the four corners of the dresser, to make it easier to move around. Plus, it’s visually pleasing for the dresser to be a bit off of the ground. (If you don't have wheels lying around your home, you can purchase them for about $2 each.)
3. I "gutted" the left side of the dresser by removing all of the drawers (and putting them aside) and by carefully hammering out any of the excess pieces that were nailed or stapled to the frame.
4. I gave the dresser two coats of almond-colored paint.
5. While the paint dried, I measured the opening of the "gutted" side of the dresser and cut a piece of fabric 2 inches wider and 6 inches longer than the opening. I then hemmed all four sides of the fabric, folded the bottom piece over 3 inches, and sewed it onto the backside of the fabric to create a place for the curtain rod to sit.
6. Once the paint dried, I stapled the curtain to the dresser using a staple gun.
7. I then put the sturdy, non-broken drawers back into the right side of the dresser.
8. A few weeks went by until I got around to going to Anthropologie to get some fancy-pants drawer pulls (stay tuned for a future tutorial on how to make your own drawer-pulls). I ordered a green “Tall flowers” vinyl art decal sticker from Single Stone Studios and then carefully applied the decal. After applying the decal, I used an X-ACTO knife to cut the decal where one drawer ended and the next began. I then screwed in my new drawer pulls and the dresser is all dressed up!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Venus Zine’s DIY Editor, Justina Blakeney, her sister Faith Blakeney, and Ellen Schultz are the designers behind Compai, a crafty design studio and eco-clothing label. With a focus on sustainable design and DIY, Compai has authored three books, collaborated with companies like Artemide and Elio Fiorucci, and has been seen on the pages of Vogue Italia, Adorn Magazine, Glamour Italia, the San Francisco Chronicle, on The Today Show, and, of course, Venus Zine. Check out what all the fuss is about at compai.com. E-mail feedback to justina [at] venuszine.com.
View more of Justina Blakeney’s work at on venuszine.com here.
Issue #32
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