Dresser to Media Center Upcycle

Katie Drane
by Katie Drane
4 Materials
$125
2 Days
Easy

Turn a $50 yard sale deal into a beautiful and functional living room media center using paint and a little elbow grease.

Good bones make great projects.


When I came across this $50 dresser with good bones at a yard sale, there was only one choice--SOLD! For months, I had been complaining about our glass media center; how it didn't meet our storage needs and I didn't want the kids climbing on it. But our search for media centers was pretty frustrating. Everything was either too expensive or didn't meet our needs.


This dresser had potential written all over it.

Choosing a paint color.


Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is my jam. It's versatile and easy to use. Picking a color was the hard part! After getting help from my daughters, we decided to go with Emperor's Silk and let me tell you, it was a good choice. It's a beautiful shade of red.

A plan for the inside.


All of the drawers were removed and the faces of the bottom five were painted in Emperor's Silk, as well as the outside of the dresser. I used medium grit sand paper to distress the edges and sealed it with a thin coat of Annie Sloan Clear Wax.


The top three spaces where drawers once were needed to be empty. That was where we were going to put our DirecTV box and our DVD player. So we removed those drawers, removed the drawer slides inside, and painted the inside Valspar Tricorn Black in Eggshell to make the inside recede into the background. It was perfect.

The finished product.


The dresser was painted, new knobs and pulls were added, and the only thing left to do was to move it into the living room and set up our electronics. Our new media center was perfect! Not only was there room for our TV and electronics, but we also had room for the kids' toys in the bottom drawers.

Suggested materials:
  • Used Dresser   (Yard Sale)
  • Annie Sloan Emperor's Silk Chalk Paint   (The Purple Painted Lady)
  • Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black Paint Sample   (Lowe's)
See all materials
Katie Drane
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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