DIY Faux Card Catalog
I took a plain old IKEA Tarva dresser and turned it into an adorable faux card catalog for my son's nursery. This project was SO quick and simple, and the end result is gorgeous - you'd never know it was a cheap IKEA dresser before! If you love this project, you can find more easy and affordable DIY ideas on my blog, Love & Renovations.
I started off with a plain IKEA Tarva dresser (image via IKEA).
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The first step is to paint the dresser. I painted everything except for the legs and the base pieces. Note that for the drawer fronts, I only painted the parts that would be visible after adding the faux drawer fronts - I was attaching the faux drawers with wood, which will stick much better to raw wood than it will to paint.
I also stained the base and legs of the dresser, then I assembled everything except the drawers.
To create the faux drawers for the card catalog, I took a piece of 1/4" plywood and cut out twenty-four 6.75″x3.75″ rectangles.
I stained each of the drawer fronts to be the same color as the base of the dresser, and allowed it to fully dry before attaching it.
Then, I took each of the faux drawer fronts and used wood glue to attach them to the drawer fronts (see the full blog post for a look at the technique I used).
Finally, I added faux card catalog hardware to each of the drawer fronts, then I assembled the drawers and the dresser was complete! For more details on this project and the sources for everything listed, check out the full blog post.
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I bet it surprises people when they try to open the individual drawer….it looks so real!
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Too cute. Thanks for sharing. I envy your garage and table saw plus all those clamps. 🙂
Frequently asked questions
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Are you not referring to baby cards?
Nicely done! I love the card catalog look. In fact I just bought a dresser I plan on giving this look to. I looked at the same hardware on amazon. I’m wondering about it’s quality. Can you share your thoughts please?
Where did you get the small “faux” drawer fronts?