We all know how expensive it is to buy a house, so buying new furniture to furnish it is out of the question. The previous owner left this dresser behind in the house and my daughter wanted me to give it a makeover.

I had recently given an old headboard a geometric design makeover and she wanted this dresser to match that design. When the dresser arrived it reminded me of the orders I receive from China, looks good in the pictures but rubbish in reality. But I have tackled worse than this dresser if this antique dresser was anything to go by.

The dresser was almost split in half and had about 5 coats of paint that had been added over the years. The drawers must have been held inside by the spider webs because they were the only thing inside the dresser that was intact. I had to try and rebuild the dresser first.

How to give a dresser a geometric makeover

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Stripping off the paint

There were so many layers of paint on this dresser it had a crackle effect. The distressed look is in demand at the moment but I thought this was pushing it. I tried using paint stripper first covered in cling film but after a few hours, it hardly penetrated the paint. So I gave that up as a bad job.

Using an orbital sander and 60 grit sandpaper also proved fruitless. So a heat gun and a paint scraper was my last resort.  I have never been a big fan of this method because the paint scraper does leave marks in the wood.  Because I was painting the dresser I was not too concerned.  This step took me a few hours to do the whole dresser but I needed to remove the paint to see what damaged was hidden beneath.

Once all the paint was removed the surface was sanded smooth using an orbital sander.  I started using 120 grit sandpaper and ended using 320 grit. I still had some marks but these would be hidden by the paint.

Glueing the structure together

The wood was very dried out and had shrunk in places, which had caused the wood to split in half.  The wood was glued back together and held in place with large clamps while the glue dried.  There was still a small gap in the middle which I filled with wood filler. This process was repeated on the sides as well.

All of the drawer runners inside were falling off, so I glued these back into place and secured them using a nail gun.

All the joins on the dresser were damaged from all the repairs over the years.  These were glued back into place and the holes in the wood were filled with wood filler. When the wood filler was dry the areas were sanded smooth using 320 grit sandpaper.

The drawers and the mirror support were all falling apart but only needed to be glued back together again.

Fitting the drawers

From past experience, the drawers are always a pain in the butt.  The wood is so dried out so they no longer slide in and out easily.  So before you fit the top make sure the drawers fit while you have access, it becomes very difficult once the top is fitted.

A good solution to the drawers sticking is to apply some beeswax to the sides of the drawers and the runners. Add the wax using a rag then heat up the wax with a heat gun and work it into the wood. The top can now be glued back in place and secured with a nail gun.

The mirror was in surprisingly good condition for the state of this dresser.  The back was taken off and the mirror removed while repairing and painting the frame.  In the past, I have caused damaged to the mirror so it was not worth the risk.

Cleaning up the furniture hardware

The hardware had as many layers of paint as the dresser.  Sanding or scraping the paint off always cause’s damage to the hardware so this method is my go-to and works perfectly each time.

You need an old pan that you no longer use for this method.  Put a half a cup of baking soda in the bottom of the pan and add your hardware. Add enough water to cover the hardware only, do not fill.  Bring to the boil and then turn the temp down to a simmer only for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes remove the hardware one at a time with tongs and wipe off the paint with some tissue paper.

To get all the paint out of the hard to reach areas you can use a small brush. I always keep the old pins for my hardware so they look original.

The hardware can now be painted with suitable spray paint.

Painting the dresser

I used chalk paint because I knew it would hide most of the dents and marks in the wood.  Add 2 coats of white chalk paint as a base coat.

To add the geometric design I used painters tape randomly placed across the drawer fronts.  There was no measuring just try and stick to a triangle shape where possible. Smooth down the tape with your hand to make sure there are no gaps for the paint to bleed through.

I used 2 different shades of grey for this project which were white and charcoal mixed into FIFO bottles.  Start by painting some of the shapes with the one colour first and allow it to dry before doing the second colour.  I found that the colours smudged when I tried to do both at the same time.

When the paint is dry you can remove the tape.  I did have a few small areas that I had to touch up.

To seal the paint and make the dresser more hardy, I added 2 coats of water-based polyurethane. And finally screwed the hardware and mirror back onto the dresser.

And that was the makeover complete.

Here is the headboard with the geometric makeover to go with the dresser.

If you are feeling more ambitious this barn quilt headboard may be just up your street.  This headboard was made by cutting hundreds of pieces of wood cut into shapes and put together like a jigsaw puzzle.

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