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Dresser Rehab Project – Happy Sunshine Yellow

This is the little dresser that I started with. I’ve had it for about 20 years and I’ve *never* liked that red stain color. I also thought the top drawers were too skinny and they were useless. Time to do something about it! It’s perfect for a dresser rehab project!


First thing I did was take apart the drawers. The top ones were just tossed aside, but the bottom ones needed to be broken apart and put back together again with more space. I have no idea why the sides of the drawers weren’t actually flush with the bottom, but it annoyed me.


 Then I removed the silly little legs and started sanding that awful stain away.


 I took the plunge and sawed out the top drawer support. I tried wiggling it out but it was stuck fast. My saw is a jigsaw blade that I’ve shoved into an Exacto knife heavy duty handle. It’s wonky, but it works well enough.


 And here’s how it ended up! Not too bad, but we aren’t done yet!


 I took that support I had removed and cut it to fit back in as dividers. Things are really starting to take shape now!


 There really wasn’t any way for me to salvage the original drawer faces, I didn’t want them going in so much so my only option was to cut new faces. I don’t have the drawers finished yet, but I will soon. The only thing I hate worse than ugly doll furniture is non-functioning doll furniture!


 After a ton of sanding, I was finally ready to paint! (Yes, paint, that red never fully sanded off and I never want to see that again.)

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 Tiny tiny spaces are difficult to paint!


  It took 3 coats of the paint pictured a few photos back and the red still wouldn’t die. I just decided to nuke it all with some primer+paint spray paint I had and we finally had full coverage.


 The drawer fronts happily only needed a single coat of this sunshine yellow.


 I had a few different ideas about legs but ended up going with the simplest option. They got glued to the base and painted white.


 Without drawers on the top what will I put there? Baskets! I wove three little baskets out of 1/8″ strips of brown construction paper.


 It took me a few tries to figure out the easiest way to make the baskets. Protip: this wasn’t it, see previous picture.


 So tiny and cute! I’m considering poly-ing them to make them look more like wood and less like paper, but that will be another day.


Seriously, how CUTE is this dresser now!?! I was having trouble finding good nobs: none of my beads looked decent enough, my shiny green staples just kept breaking apart, and then I found these thumbtacks! BINGO! Overall, A HUGE improvement, don’t you think? I spent 10 years disliking this dresser, and in 3 days, I absolutely love it. What ugly furniture have you been holding on to?

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Edit: I did eventually go back and finish out the drawers. I didn’t have time originally, but it was always my intent. I also repainted everything white as the pink *still* was showing through. Happy little yellow drawers!

If you liked any of the tools or supplies I was using and think they might be helpful in your own miniatures adventure, I have Amazon Affiliate links to them for you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Should you choose to purchase any of these, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a commission. Know that I only recommend products, tools, services and learning resources I’ve personally used and believe are genuinely helpful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to purchase them. Most of all, I would never advocate for buying something that you can’t afford, don’t feel comfortable with, or that you’re not yet ready to use.

Additionally, I used Valspar Paint in the tiny testers for painting, you can get those at most Home Improvement stores.

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2 Comments

  1. Richard

    I like what you did with this. I have some of the same type of furniture that just sits in a box for the same reason as yours. Maybe I should attempt this. I wanted something with baskets.

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