No Drawer? Then Make a Cubby!

Toni Hunton
by Toni Hunton
So I picked up another disaster project. $5 at a yard sale over a month ago and it has been sitting ever since. I didn't know the top drawer was broken until I got it home, and honestly with all the bits I have laying around to work on there was no time to make a new one. So I ditched it.
After taking it apart, I saw it had been gorged on by the local termite cousin called a Bora Beetle. This meant a douse in kerosene to kill any off that may still be around, and then fill in all the holes.
What a mess.
There will be lots of sanding on this one.


After it was nice and dry, I got out some of Dave's left over paper...gotta love him...and set about hand sanding it down to a nice smooth and even surface.
There's that busted drawer I mentioned, along with the others still in great shape.


We won't go into the handles though...they had to be hammered off, so I couldn't re-use them as they broke in half.
I used a baby blue enamel paint over my standard white base, only one coat of both this time. Then smeared the whole thing in a Black Bean stain, applying it with a foam brush in one direction only and following that up with a dry lint free rag in the same direction.
I also did this on the drawers.


Like I said, the handles all broke...with the help of a hammer...so I thought that I would simply thread some large sisal rope through the monster holes that they left, the end effect is pretty cool.
The cabinet was done in also the white base, then 2 coats of a dark blue I have, and again with the stain. The inside of where the top drawer used to go, I painted white then went over it with the stain as this will be visible when the bottom of the old drawer is set in place.


I also painted the lip of the top cubby in white and did a stain. It came out awesome.
Now as you can see, this was a bit of a mess up.


I purchased a staple gun yesterday to use to put the old drawer bottom in place, and it didn't work, so I ended up using 8 brad nails instead.


I am still learning for sure!!
The legs were in the same fugly brown as the dresser, so I decided to paint them the same as the drawers to have a contrast. They also got a very light stain job.
I left the back of the cabinet the dark blue, no need for staining here.
Here she is all finished.


Start-to-end this was a 3 day job, yesterday it rained so that didn't help when your studio is your courtyard.
I hope folks like it. The blue is real big for me over here, helps that I have a ton of it to use up.


I did however score some black at the dump store, and will be using that on an upcoming project.


Thanks for reading this, hope you all like it.
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  3 questions
  • Joy Bussey Joy Bussey on Mar 30, 2016
    What did you use for the display shelf in the top opening?
  • Carol Brown Hargrave Carol Brown Hargrave on Mar 30, 2016
    How did you attach the rope pulls?
  • Clou77 Clou77 on Mar 31, 2016
    This is awesome! How creative with the paint and stain combo. I'm designing a bedroom or even living room around it in my mind right now! 😊 Do you happen to know what era the design of this dresser is from? Thanks! Cindy
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  • Toni Hunton Toni Hunton on Apr 03, 2016
    Thanks Joan,was actually the hubbys idea.....knew he would be good for something one day
  • William William on Apr 13, 2016
    Another great piece! Perfect for the seaside. Great job! And Dave to the rescue =:)
    • Toni Hunton Toni Hunton on Apr 13, 2016
      @William thanks hun,dunno what I would do without him at times,he is a bit handy,so will let him hang round a bit longer
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