Follow This Old House online:

Site search

Before and After: DIY Map-Drawer Dresser

Home-improvement fanatic Jenni Radosevich has been blogging about everything DIY on her website, I Spy DIY, for nearly a decade. Here's one of our favorite dresser upgrades on the Web

by Katelin Hill

“I needed some extra storage for off-season clothes in my guest room,” Jenni says. “I love the look of vintage map drawers, but their cost is crazy expensive.”

BEFORE | The dresser Jenni picked to overhaul for this project worked well thanks to its flat drawer fronts, which were slightly inset by about 1⁄8 inch. This allowed the poplar, once it was added to the drawer fronts, to not jut too far out from the rest of the piece. | Courtesy of IKEA
AFTER | To hack the look of shallow map drawers, Jenni started with a simple white dresser from a big-box store. To cover the flat drawer fronts, she cut 3-inch-wide strips of inch poplar to length and enriched them with stain she had on hand. She affixed three planks per drawer by screwing two knobs through each piece of poplar and the drawer front. Label holders and labels soaked in coffee grounds and water complete the effect. | Courtesy of ispydiy.com
This project was originally featured in DIY on a Dime in the Jan/Feb 2019 issue of This Old House magazine. See all of our favorite blogger projects from this issue here. | Courtesy of ispydiy.com

Next Up In Furniture