Dollar Tree Furniture Flip-Dresser 2.0

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

I had so much fun doing the last Dollar Tree dollhouse furniture flip with the tall dresser I decided to do another flip with the shorter dresser that they carry.

My inspiration this time was some photos online of some mid-century furniture that I was looking at. While this piece is not a direct copy of any one of the pieces I saw online it was inspired by several.

The dresser is not a bad size to begin with, just a bit clunky because of the top and bottom being a bit large for the scale. I am happy that the dressers they carry do seem to be sized really nicely for dollhouse scale.

As normal before we can proceed with the flip we need to do some dis-assembly first. This piece co-operated fairly well with the process. I was able to just briefly heat each drawer pull with my heat tool and they came out very nicely with a pair of jewelry pliers. Do be sure to put these in a safe place we will need them again later.

The top and bottom both needed to come off since I felt they were way too big as well as too thick for the scale. By heating with my heat tool and then cutting at the seam line a bit with my knife they came off really easily.

After a bit of sanding to smooth the rough edges I replaced both the top and bottom with pieces I cut from some giant craft sticks. I cut these to be just a hair longer that the width of the dresser body. For the bottom I trimmed the length of the piece to match up with the depth (front to back) of the dresser body. I left the top to give a nice overhang on the front.

After this glue dried I added new legs cut from bamboo skewers, the ones you find in the kitchen. Mine are about an ⅛” in diameter. I cut the legs to be about the same height as the legs that had originally been on the dresser.

 

The best tool I have ever found to use when cutting any small round wood is a set of the nail clippers that are made to use on dog and cat claws. They will cut the round shape without flattening it like other tools do. If you look for ones meant for large dogs they are really durable too.

I glued the legs as close to the corners as I could manage. As the glue dried I added a bit more in layers with a toothpick to give it a bit more durability. The legs are not perfect but pretty close.

Next I went on to painting the dresser. I wanted to have that dark warm looking stained look of a lot of the furniture of this period. I however did not want to stain the dresser. I don't think the woods used in this piece would have taken the stain evenly. So I used a painting technique that replicates the stained look with paint.

I started with a base layer of Golden Sunset by Apple Barrel, any yellow ochre color would do for this layer.

Then to top that off I mixed some Raw Umber from Liquitex Basics with some Pumpkin from Apple Barrel. I wish in hindsight that I had added a touch of water, I think it would have wiped easier and mixed better if I had. The idea with this layer is to coat the surface and then wipe it away just like you would if you were using a stain. The lines from wiping coupled with the yellow base-coat combine to give the impression of a stained piece of furniture.

I decided to re-use the drawer pulls from the piece. I had damaged one of them but I had several in my stash from some of the other pieces I have flipped lately so it was easy to come up with 8 that were fine.

For these I just gave them a nice coat of Metallic 14K Gold from Ceramcoat.

Gluing the drawer pulls back onto the dresser was an easy step.

Then just a quick coat of Satin Mod Podge and the transformation was complete.

 

 

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