Dresser to Desk Transformation

2-3 Hours
Medium
It turns out that when you manage your family’s finances, schedules, and meal planning, you tend to spend a lot of time in your home office. If you have a tiny desk to use as your work surface you’ve probably experienced the frustration of having little to no space to spread out and organize.
The desk we had was just too small for me to accomplish much, if anything, upon. I was always spreading things out on the dining room table or floor. Then, I found this antique dresser at a garage sale and snatched it up. I knew exactly what it would become to fit our needs in our home: a huge desk!
The dresser was in great condition, which is important to look at when refinishing furniture. Take not of material integrity and drawer functionality.
Take out the middle drawers. Save them for a really cool project in the future. You never know what you’ll need old drawers for (said the hoarder of odd furniture pieces).
Cut out the drawer supports in the middle. I was hoping to just buzz my circular saw through these, but space was too much of an issue, so I got out the hand saw. There was a wooden framing and then a cardboard like board to go between the drawers.
Now, we want to cover the ugly parts of the inside of this dresser to make it more interesting and visually appealing. Measure the back and sides of the cavity you just made to cut your boards to size. I had been given these really cool old horse fence rails from my aunt’s farm that I decided would be perfect for the job.


Attach your back boards first. Take note that the ones at the bottom will be easier to see than the ones up top, so decide which boards you like best and arrange them accordingly. If you have big gaps in your boards from where the horses chewed on them like mine did, you can spray paint a dark color underneath.


Once you have them arranged, use a nail gun to secure them down.


The sides were tricky because of the lack of supporting boards. In hind sight, I would have added more. What I did to make sure they were all secured enough was alternate them in front and behind each other.
Now you are ready to get some painting done! Let me just say, I’m always amazed at how a little paint can completely transform something. I decided to try a whitewashed look, even though this is a smooth surface. I did my research and read many tutorials on how to do get the white wash look.
And that is how to turn an antique dresser into an awesome desk! As I sit here typing this out, I’m admiring and loving how this piece turned out and I’m sure you’ll love yours. It is so rewarding to find a thrifted piece of furniture, like the dresser that this was, and turn it into something useful and beautiful. Be sure to check out my blog: http://www.charmingimperfections.com for this and other DIY tutorials!
Rebekah @ Charming Imperfections
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 50 comments
Next