A Ray of Sunlight: Card Catalog Dresser Makeover

Last weekend I spotted this apothecary style dresser on craigslist. Since I've been searching for something similar for a while now, it only took a few minutes to contact the seller and jump in the truck to snatch them up. On craigslist he only had a photo of the dresser on the right, so I had no idea what the other one was going to look like. I was so disappointed to find that the "matching" dresser wasn't the same, but I bought them both anyway. There had to be a way to change it so it had the apothecary feel to it.

A few days later I stumbled across a post from Julia at Boxwood and Brass. Her pieces are always top notch and I just love following her to see what she does next. Well, by a miracle, she had just finished up the same exact Ethan Allen dresser. It was spot on with what I wanted to do and I finally had an idea of how to accomplish it. I quickly scoured the comments to see if she had given any hint about how she had transformed the drawer fronts. Her husband had routered out the drawer fronts to create her vision. That was just the inspiration I needed to transform our dresser.

Within 24 hours I had called my dad to get his advice and ask for his help on this one. I had never used a router before, even though it's on my list of tools to get. Of course I couldn't wait to see the transformation for myself, so we got to work as soon as possible.

We wanted to mimic the exact grooved out design that Ethan Allen had originally created, but we wanted the bottom two drawers to look like they were actually 16 small drawers instead 4 longer drawers. The original grooved out design was a 5/8" wide x 1/8" deep. Each edge had an angle, just like a "v".

Using the top drawer as a guide, we measured and clamped the straight edge to the drawer front.We wanted the center of the router to be the same distance from the outside edge as the notched out grooves were from the outside edge on the top drawer.

Once everything was measured and then double checked, we put the straight bit onto the router. We held the router level and kept it flush against the side of the straight edge. Without the straight edge, there is no way we would have ended up with completely straight lines.

Once all of the straight grooves were cut, we changed out the Straight Bit for the V-Groove Bit. This time we wanted the center of the router to be right on the edge of the groove we just routered. We measured, and then checked to make sure our measurements were correct by placing the center of the bit right on the edge. Then we made sure the edge of the router base was flush against the straight edge. Once again we kept the router flush against the straight edge as we cut. *Note: Be aware of the direction the bit is spinning. At one point the bit didn't want to cut evenly and straight. We realized that when we were cutting one edge, the router needed to be pushed away from me. When we cut the other side of the groove, the router had to be pulled towards me. Otherwise the bit was cutting away from the wood, causing it to jump around.

The most time consuming process was measuring and then double and triple checking to make sure we were cutting in the right spot. It wasn't something we could mess up on and just start on a new board. But the extra time double checking was well worth not messing up.

To prep the dressers for painting we stripped the tops with Citristrip, lightly sanded everything and thoroughly cleaned them. We taped off the tops and the insides of the drawers. Learn more about our process here. Then we gave them 2 coats of shellac. Shellac is super important to use when painting lighter colors. The wood / stain tend to bleed through the lighter colors, causing random yellow / red spots. Primer works too, but shellac dries clear instead of white like primer.

We sprayed on about 3 coats of General Finishes Bone White Chalk Style Paint. Usually we spray on at least 5 coats when we paint a shade of white, so I was super happy to see amazing coverage with this paint. Using 220 grit sandpaper we distressed the edges and then wiped and vacuumed away the dust. We took all of the tape and plastic covering off and we gave the tops two coats of General Finishes Antique Walnut Gel Stain.

We ordered the card catalog style hardware from D. Lawless Hardware. You can find them here. You can also order the screws for your hardware from them as well. Since we had 36 pieces of hardware to attach, I quickly made a handmade version of a hardware template out of cardboard, tape and a small level. I measured out where I wanted the hardware, made holes in the cardboard, and marked on each drawer where the screws would go. It made attaching the hardware so much more simple. I would suggest buying one, unless you're in a pinch like I was and just wanted the project to be complete.

I couldn't be more happy with the final results! Even up close and in person, I can't even tell that the dressers didn't come this way to begin with. The transformation is absolutely amazing and I can't wait to find another dresser with basic drawers to transform.