Dresser Makeover

One more thing done in the big boys room! I showed you a sneak peek of this dresser badly in need of some repair.  It's actually a changing table that you can flip over into a dresser.  The drawers rotate too.  It's made of pine and has a ton of dings, but otherwise a solid dresser.

The hardware didn't fit very well with our vision for the room.   

I really, really longed to have this furniture and Knock-Off Wood has the plans for it all!  The problem is that my son's room is teeny-tiny, and frankly...I don't think I could muster enough energy to build all that! So, I started thinking and wandered around all over Knock-Off Wood.  I wanted to keep the dresser for my son's clothes and give him some storage space.

I found the HUTCH plans, and I think they are brilliant! I haven't had the chance to build any of her plans yet, and I have to say....it was really fun, even in that hot garage.  It reminds me of all the Lego's I built with my son over the years, connect here and here and you end up with this creation! I had a ball! 

I picked up some pine boards to match the dresser and cut all the boards to size.  I altered the hutch to fit the dresser and the height of the room.  

I sanded, filled and primed/painted the board before I assembled.  I used a paint and primer in one by Behr.  I'm really not sure if it was any easier to do it that way?  The finished product still required a lot of repair and painting.  I made a lot of mistakes that had to be fixed! ;)

If you remember from my earlier post, I did this while my husband was out of town.  We finished the last coat of paint and I was anxious to see how it would all fit together.  I had my nine year old son help me lift this sucker up on the dresser to see how it looked.  I have to say we were really pleased.  The pictures don't show how large it really is. 

Here's it is in his room.  I had a hard time getting the pictures to show the accurate color. 

 It's much darker in person.

We filled it with all the things my son loves and he is happy as a clam!

I did add some dividers on the top to look more like the inspiration picture.  I noticed most of Knock-Off wood's hutch plans have these too.

It really adds a lot of height to the room and fits well with the room size.

There are the "ball cages" or freezer baskets that fit so well on the shelves.

The shelves are 12" boards,  so it's roomy enough to fit large items.

Now, I did not want in any way....for this thing to fall down and crush one of my kids.  So, I headed to Home Depot and asked the guy how to secure it.  He suggested using L-brackets and adhering to the top with screws and into the studs of the walls.

I also added more security and counter-sunk some holes and put long screws into the studs.  It feels safe and secure, because I KNOW my monkeys will be scaling the wall to steal their brother's stuff. 

I also ran into another problem.  The hutch was now flush with the walls, but the dresser wasn't because of the baseboards.  The dresser hung down and it took me some time to figure out how to fix this. 

Shims!

  You just push them in on the bottom and cut off when it fits.  The shims pushed the dresser up so hutch sat flush on the dresser.  No gaps!

I added new hardware.  I went with the simple, brushed nickel, industrial-looking handle.  It fits well with the silver in the room and the containers on the shelves.

Here it is before -because it so fun to compare! :)

There you go!  The headboard is next and I'll share a couple of other projects I have in mind with you this week.  There's a few important things I learned from building Knock-Off Wood's plans.  Having two sets of hands is best and BE SURE to use a square!  Thanks again Ana for sharing your plans-I have caught the building bug!