How To Makeover A Dresser Into A Faux Apothecary Cabinet
I absolutely love vintage and antique furniture – the functionality, character, and how well built the pieces are. I’ve had my eye on a vintage apothecary cabinet. But even with all my thrift store shopping, estate sale visits, yard sale adventures and antique mall wanders I have not found one that was in my budget.
And because of this I came up with my own solution to find a great piece (or two) to make my own apothecary cabinets. The good news is I’m sharing how to makeover a dresser into a faux apothecary cabinet so you can create your own. With a little time spent creating you’ll have an antique apothecary cabinet look or card catalog look on any of the basic dressers you find!
A Dresser To Makeover Into A Faux Apothecary Cabinet
I purchased this old dresser off of Facebook Marketplace from an elderly gentleman who said this piece of furniture was part of his baby room furniture. It was made and bought originally in the 1940’s. It had been with this man through childhood and into marriage.
This dresser was the perfect piece for the small space besides our front door for extra storage. By using a new paint color, new drawer pulls and wood squares I created my own DIY apothecary cabinet.
After stripping and adding a fresh coat of paint to the entire piece I turned my attention to making faux apothecary drawers from the three separate drawers.
Side Note – Full step by step tutorial here
Create The Faux Drawers On The Dresser To Makeover Into A Faux Apothecary Cabinet
Our goal is to make the large drawers into many little drawers. This is our inspiration – a vintage apothecary cabinet from the early 1900s.
I used 6 inch square wood squares to create faux drawer fronts. His was the easiest way I found to create the look of multiple small drawers on the dresser drawer fronts.
Find The Wood Squares For Your DIY Apothecary Cabinet Here!
Woodpeckers Crafts is a terrific resource for all of your wood craft supplies. Think of it as your go to online wood shop! Find the correct length of wood square for your project here!
The link below is an affiliate link. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link.
An alternative would be to visit the hardware store to purchase wood planks and use a circular saw or table saw to create your own wood squares.
Using a yardstick and level I spaced each piece of wood out on the wooden drawer fronts. I wanted to skip the power tools for this project so I used wood glue to attach the wood squares onto the drawer fronts. If power tools are your thing you can use brad nails to attach the wood squares.
The final step is to attach the new hardware on each square. Measure for the center of each wood square and attach the new pulls with label holders to the faux drawer fronts.
Another Makeover To Turn A Side Table Into A Faux Apothecary Cabinet
When I saw this nightstand in Goodwill it was an easy choice to purchase. I could see its potential to be “fifth sparrow-d no more” into a DIY apothecary chest.
The first thing I did to start its new look was to remove the half round decorative piece from the top of the dresser.
After cleaning I used wood filler to fill in all the holes from the decorative piece and old hardware I removed.
The cabinet was painted and decoupage paper was applied everywhere from the sides of the cabinet to the front of the dresser. This created a shabby chic distressed look.
See the full tutorial from first coat of paint to the finished cabinet here
The recesses on the wooden drawer fronts were painted to create the illusion of smaller drawers. You can use black paint or any darker color to create the illusion of separation or shadow.
After finding the center of each smaller section I drilled pilot holes (find out what these are and why they are important here) and attached my handles with the screws provided.
Where Can I Use My Dresser I Have Made Over Into A Faux Apothecary Cabinet
- Use in a home office. Store all of your supplies inside of the drawer to stay organized!
- In the dining room for extra linens, table settings and more. Install dowel rods in the drawer bottoms to keep plates in neat stacks.
- A small tabletop apothecary cabinet can be used in the kitchen as a spice cabinet.
- Use anywhere for extra storage space.
Before You Fly Away To Makeover A Dresser Into A Faux Apothecary Cabinet
Pin any of the images to Pinterest so you can mak over a dresser into a faux apothecary cabinet – hover over any picture to save the pin to your Pinterest account. So easy!
