Transform Your Old Dresser: A Step-by-Step DIY Fluted Dresser Makeover

Have you ever looked at an old piece of furniture and imagined the possibilities?

That’s exactly what I did with an old dresser that was begging for a transformation. I decided to keep its natural timber beauty while adding a modern twist with a DIY fluted dresser design. Let's dive into the makeover and tutorial!

The Makeover Begins

Most of the handles on the dresser were already missing, but I removed the two handles that were still there and then took all of the drawers out of the dresser. I gave the front of the drawers a deep clean just to remove any grime on them, and then I got my sander out and sanded off the edges of the drawers. I didn't need to do anything to the front of the drawers because I knew that I was going to be gluing on a whole lot of half-round dowels to create my DIY fluted effect, so to make it a little bit easier for myself, all I did was sand the edges of the drawer back to raw.

I chose to use my battery orbital sander to sand the edges of the drawers. I use my battery orbital when I'm sanding smaller locations or things where there is an edge like this because it is a lot lighter for me to hold and doesn't give me such a sore hand or wrist when I'm sanding these areas. I continued sanding on the drawer fronts until I had sanded off the edges of all of the drawers. Because I'm keeping this piece as natural as possible and going to have as much exposed timber as possible, where I've sanded these back to raw, I'm just going to add a light stain to blend the edges of the drawers into the colour of the timber dowels that I'm adding on.

Once I finished sanding off all the drawers, I then just went back in and gave them another clean to remove all of the sanding dust.

Working on the Body

Now it's time to start working on the body of the piece, so the first thing I did was come in with my Krud Kutter and just give it a nice deep clean.

I needed to quickly change out the blade on my carbide scraper before I started using it because my old blade had gotten a little bit blunt.

I'm going to be using the carbide scraper before I do my sanding because this is going to save me a fair bit of sanding time. I'm using the carbide scraper to remove the top layer of the varnish because this particular dresser had a really thick varnish on it, and it was just going to take a long time to try and sand through that.

Anything that I can do to help reduce the sanding time is going to be beneficial. Once you finish scraping off the varnish, you're going to be left with a pile of that old varnish. You can use the carbide scraper on any surface that is flat, so I then, once I finished the top, went through and used the carbide scraper on the sides of the dresser and also along those flat edges on the front.

Once I'd scraped off as much of the varnish as I could, it was time to grab out my belt sander. I chose to use the belt sander first on this piece because, as I mentioned earlier, the varnish was really thick, and the belt sander is just going to help me rip through that varnish a lot faster than my orbital sander could.

If you're somebody who does like to regularly refinish furniture, I highly recommend getting a belt sander. It is quite a cheap investment; this belt sander cost me about $180 Australian dollars to purchase, but I use it all the time, and it's definitely worthwhile to save yourself the time and hassle of continuously having to sand for a long period of time with an orbital sander.

Once I had removed as much as I could with the belt sander, I then swapped back to an orbital sander. Now this orbital sander is my corded orbital sander, and I just use this sander sometimes when I want to be a little bit faster. You really don't need to have multiple sanders, but I like to swap between my different sanders for different circumstances and also depending on the speed of the project.

If you're just getting started, you can get away with just one sander and do all of this work with just that one sander; it is just going to take you a little bit more time than what it did for me to be able to swap between the different sanders that are specifically sort of more suitable for a particular purpose.

This sander is a bigger sander in that it has a 150 mm diameter, and the discs that go onto it are a little bit bigger, which gives it a little bit more surface area to sand through a little bit faster. It's also just overall a more powerful sander than my battery orbital.

So for everywhere that I've sanded on this piece, I have worked my way through the sanding grits, starting with an 80-grit sandpaper, moving to a 120-grit sandpaper, and then finishing off with a 240-grit sandpaper so that I get a really nice smooth finish.

Creating the Fluted Effect

Now it's time to actually start making my fluted effect. What I have here is a whole lot of Tasmanian Oak half-round dowels, and I'm going to be cutting them all down to the same size so that I can glue them onto the front of the drawer to create that fluted effect.

I measured the drawer to get the length that I needed for each individual piece, and then I used a ruler and a pen just to mark out where it needed to be each time and then used the mitre saw to cut these to the right length. After cutting the first couple of lengths, I decided it was going to be faster for me to cut two at a time, and therefore I just started measuring two the same length and then cutting those two at the same time. This just saved me a little bit of time, although it still took me a bit over an hour to cut 220 lengths.

Once all the lengths were cut to size, I then went through with just a little piece of hand sandpaper and sanded off the edges just to make a really nice smooth finish. Sometimes, depending on the blade that you're using in your mitre saw, you might end up with a few little splinters at the edge of the cuts.

Now it was time to glue them on. I used Liquid Nails and ran the Liquid Nails all along the front of the drawer. I got a spatula and just scraped that down a little bit to try and make it as flat as possible so that I didn't get any glue pushing through between each individual piece, and then I applied all of these individual lengths to the front of the drawers.

You need to be mindful of the temperature in the space you're working in because you want to make sure that the glue doesn't dry too much before you apply the timber onto it. If you find the glue is drying too fast, work in sections and only do one half of the drawer and then the other half of the drawer, or apply some more glue before you get to that section. Once you've got all of the timber on there, you may just want to go back along and make sure that they are all level. You're just going to repeat the process on all of the drawers until you've completed all six.

Staining and Varnishing

The next step is to apply the timber stain. You could pick any colour timber stain that you like, depending on what colour furniture you have within your home and what other colour timbers you have. For this project, I chose to use an oak stain because I wanted to try and get the colour of the dresser to be quite similar to the Tasmanian Oak that I'm going to be using as the feature on the fluted drawers.

This particular oak stain is quite dark, and it's probably a little bit darker than what I would have liked so that it would match perfectly with the Tasmanian oak on the front of the drawers, but we're still going to make it work. I'm applying the stain with a sponge, making sure to get all of the timber sections and then going back along with a rag and wiping off any excess of the stain.

You need to make sure you give the stain an adequate amount of time to dry. It depends on the different stains as to how long that is, but for this stain, I needed to give it 6 hours to dry. I was then able to apply a top coat. For this piece, I have picked the clear varnish in a satin finish.

This is a polyurethane that I am going to be applying everywhere onto the dresser, and I'm going to be applying three coats of this to give it the most amount of protection. So for the varnish on the front of the drawers, on my Tasmanian Oak pieces of timber, I added a little bit of the stain into the varnish so that it would match a little bit better with the stain.

However, I also spilled it all over my floor. After cleaning up my spill on the floor, I mixed that in together with the varnish until it was all blended nicely, and I was able to paint that onto the drawers. I just want to point out that this is not the timber inside my house and my actual floors; this is a staging area that I created in my garage workshop, so I'm not actually using this stain and getting it all over the floor inside my home.

I took my brush and brushed the varnish on the entire body of the piece and then also on the drawers. Once the first coat had dried, I gave it a light sand with a 240-grit piece of sandpaper, just very lightly to give it a nice smooth finish, wiped away the sanding dust, and then applied the second coat. Once the second coat was dry, I repeated that process again, and I did the same for the third coat.

Final Touches: Installing the Handles

Now it's time to attach the handles. I got these beautiful T-bar handles that are in a satin brass finish. They are a little bit skinnier than the normal T-bar handles that you usually see, but I picked them specifically because of that reason, and they have a little bit more of an elegant look to them.

The first thing I did was measure the centre of the drawer where the handle needs to go, and I used my measuring tape to do that, marking it with a pencil. Then, using my ruler, I measured the other direction as well, just to make sure that they were all exactly the same spot and going to be perfectly centered.

I used my drill to drill the holes where I had marked the spots for the handles. Once I drilled those holes, I put the handles on, and then I used a screwdriver to screw them in tightly.

The Final Result

And here it is, the final result! This dresser makeover is a beautiful blend of natural timber with a modern twist. The fluted drawers add a unique texture and visual interest, while the satin brass handles give it a touch of elegance. This dresser now has a new life and is ready to be a statement piece in any room.

Here is a list of all of the products used in this makeover in case you want to do it too.

Products Used:

• Timber Stain - https://rb.gy/2kmq1o

• Half Round Dowels - https://rb.gy/aryy1k

• Drawer Liner - https://tinyurl.com/3kea9u5y

• Paint Brush - https://amzn.to/42bDpVP

• Carbide Scraper - https://amzn.to/3Ucb1AY

• Carbide Scraper Blades - https://amzn.to/4cGdSbC

• Ryobi Mitre Saw - https://amzn.to/4baPLl7

• Makita Professional Sander - https://amzn.to/3SG0c9r

• Makita Battery Sander Skin & Battery - https://amzn.to/3ObE5EP

• Makita Belt Sander - https://amzn.to/3Scu77F

• Krud Kutter Degreaser - https://amzn.to/3XM5l2r

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Thank you for following along with this DIY dresser makeover tutorial. I hope it inspires you to transform your old furniture into something beautiful and unique. Happy DIY-ing!

Watch the full video here: