ANTHROPOLOGIE DUPE: Faux Handcarved Wooden Dresser | Extreme Furniture Transformation

hi everyone welcome to another anthropology dupe today i'm going to be showing you how i recreated the gorgeous hand carved ornithology three drawer dresser from anthropologie using an old beat up wooden dresser and some epoxy clay this dresser retails for about fifteen hundred dollars and i was able to make mine for just under 100. the best part of this dupe is that you don't even need to be an experienced sculptor to do this project let me show you how the subject of this transformation is this wooden dresser i picked up off the facebook marketplace as you can see i definitely have my work cut out for me so let's get started i started out by sanding the old finish off the dresser using an orbital sander with a 100 grit sandpaper pad on it the finish was already pretty worn out so it came off very easily i took off the dust catcher bag because it got in the way when i was sanding the top of the dresser there was a rather large stain on the top that took me a while to get out but i was able to remove it with pretty minimal effort this was my first time using an orbital sander and it was so easy it made me want to refinish every wooden surface in my house i'm not really sure if that was because the finish on this dresser was already so worn out or not so if you have any experience using an orbital sander let me know in the comments if it's always this easy [Music] i removed the existing knobs and hardware from each drawer then removed all three drawers and sanded the front edges of the dresser [Music] i then sanded each drawer front [Music] [Music] [Music] it already looks so much better with the old finish sanded off [Music] next i'm using epoxy sculpt to add details to the front of the dresser that will give it a hand carved wood look i talked about epoxy sculpt in my last thrift flip video but if you're unfamiliar it's a two-part epoxy clay that is super easy to work with sticks to pretty much any surface and dries rock hard it's ideal for a furniture piece like this because of its durability you mix equal parts of a and b together and then you have a one to three hour work time to sculpt with be sure to always wear gloves when handling epoxy sculpt i really like these fitted black latex ones i will link them in the description if you're curious i recommend mixing your clay in small batches and working in small sections so that your clay doesn't dry out before you finish sculpting and go to waste i started by applying the clay down one side of the dresser [Music] i smoothed out the clay with water then used my fingers and a sculpting tool to add a tree bark texture to it [Music] because the end goal is such an organic shape there really is no wrong way to do this i use my fingers to add deeper lines and create a rough tree shape in the clay then i use my sculpting tool to add finer tree bark detailing [Music] keeping your fingers and sculpting tools slightly wet will help keep your clay smooth [Music] once i was happy with the texture i added more clay to the bottom and repeated the process [Music] the next step is adding the branches i used a similar technique to the tree trunk and rolled out pieces of clay onto the dresser and textured them with my sculpting tool [Music] if you're sculpting over drawers like i am be sure to cut the clay at the seam so that your dresser drawers will still [Music] open next i'm going to add some leaves using the silicone cake mold be sure to lightly wet the mold before pressing your clay in so that it doesn't [Music] stick [Music] [Music] press a small piece of clay into the mold and voila a perfect leaf i repeated this process with varying leaf sizes until the branches were full [Music] oh okay this next step is my favorite part of the sculpting process because it's so easy but so satisfying i bought a couple bird shaped soap molds and cut them in half with an exacto knife down the middle seam after the mold is cut you now have two silicone bird molds facing in opposite [Music] directions repeat the same process of wetting the molds and pressing your clam might eat it on the leaves [Music] you can then place your birds in the desired positions on your dresser i wanted my birds to look slightly different from one another so i used a smaller mold for the body of this bird i didn't really like the way the head turned out so to fix this issue i simply used the other mold to create a new head facing in the proper direction if your birds come out of the mold a little crooked you can straighten them out with a sculpting tool like i'm doing here on the anthropology dresser this last bird is looking backwards so i use the same technique as before of using a different mold for the head and body to achieve this look [Music] i use my finger to blend the pieces together and water to smooth out the clay as necessary [Music] finally i rolled small pieces of clay to create the bird's feet [Music] i placed the rolled clay underneath each bird wrapped it over the tree branch and then split the end with my sculpting tool to create the toes [Music] once i completed the sculpting and the epoxy sculpt was completely cured it was time for paint i went to the hardware store and bought a quart of paint in the closest color i could find that match the dresser this color is called palomino pony by valspar and i got it in a satin finish in hindsight i could have just bought one of those small three dollar paint samples and saved some money because the court was way more paint than i needed i really wanted this to be as close to the original dresser as possible so i decided to try and paint the clay to match the wood however i think it would be just as nice and a lot easier to paint the entire dresser a solid color so that's another option for you i painted all of the sculpted pieces taking care not to get paint on the actual wood this paint had really great coverage and i only needed one coat [Music] so [Music] after all the clay was painted i went over it with a mix of watered down brown acrylic craft paint again taking care not to paint the real wood i applied this mixture over the base coat in sections and wiped the excess away with a rag before it dried i repeated this process until i was happy with the finish [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so if your brown paint mixture dries too dark you can gently wipe it off with a damp rag like i'm doing here as a final step i brushed on a watered-down yellow ochre acrylic in random places to add some warmth [Music] finally i gave the entire piece a top coat of a clear satin finish this is my first time using one of these and i felt like this one was just okay if you have a wood sealer you really like please let me know in the comments so i can try it out next time [Music] okay before i show you the final product let's take one more look at the before [Music] and here's the after i've been slowly working on this project for a while now and i'm so happy to finally be sharing it with you guys i hope you love it as much as i do if you decide to make one for yourself i would love to see it please send me pictures over on instagram happyhomemama.diy thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed this video please give it a like and subscribe to my channel for more diys [Music] you

Channel: Happy Home Mama

Views: 321,650

Keywords: anthropologie, dupes, diy, home decor, thrifted finds, thrift flip, thrifted, furniture restoration, upcycling, dupe, how to

Id: YXQdFmyzD6M

Length: 14min 12sec (852 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 28 2021