DIY 6 Drawer Tall Dresser | How to Build

What's up guys, I'm Brad Rodriguez from Fix This Build That and today, I'm gonna show you how to make a DIY Dresser. I made this one for my daughter And I got all the materials for the build at the local home center Now this build has easy joinery that anyone can do stay tuned I'll show you just how I did it the DIY dresser is made from 3/4 inch plywood and dimensional lumber I started by breaking down the plywood into manageable pieces with my Kreg Accu-cut guide and my cordless circular saw Next I took the smaller pieces to the table saw my cut parts for the sides of the dresser These plywood panels will be joined to the legs using pocket screws so I drove pocket holes down the length of each panel The legs are made from two by twos I cut all four of them to size on my miter saw using a stop block for the repeated cuts I lined up the legs and I mark the ends to keep them in order and then I laid out cut lines for a groove or a rabbet on the inside of the back legs this recess will hold a quarter-inch plywood back panel flush on the back of the dresser when I install it and The rabbet cut can be made with two cuts on the table saw The first cut defines the width of the rabbit and the second one defines the depth and it also frees the offcut And this feature could also be made with a router bit if you don't have access to a table saw To assemble the sides I laid some 3/4 inch spacers on my bench to lift the plywood panel up to the same height as the legs I put glue on the legs and then I clamp them in place and secure them to the panel with pocket screws Now flush fit on the inside is gonna. Let me mount the drawer slides easily later. I cut two pieces of trim to size to finish off the outside of the side panels a 1 by 2 glued and Brad nailed to the top and a 1 by 3 for the bottom gives the side panel a nice frame and panel look to give the dresser a little more detail I trimmed the frame of the sides with cove molding I cut one into the molding take it to the side Mark the fit for the next miter and then make that cut I like to mark just slightly long when doing miter work like this And after the initial cut I'll test fit and then take whatever little bit needs to be off after that I'd rather sneak up on this cut then to cut it too short trying to get it right the first time When all the parts were dry fit I came back and secured them all with a 23 gauge pin nailer but a brad nailer or finish nails works fine here to The sides of the dresser are connected by a bottom panel and stretchers on the top and middle Which make the opening for the top drawers? I cut the bottom in the back stretchers from 3/4 inch plywood But for the visible front stretchers and bottom trim. I use 3/4 inch solid wood I drilled pocket holes around the bottom panel to connect the trim and secure the sides I also drilled holes in the ends of the stretchers to join the sides now all these holes are going to be hidden after assembly For the bottom panel I started by attaching the solid wood 1 by 3 trim to the front then I secure the plywood back to him the same way Securely clamping everything to a flat bench or work surface is really key here Since you can't see the top of the joint with a panel upside down In my design the legs stand proud of the drawers in the front trim by 3/8 of an inch I like the extra shadow lines and interest this gives the piece So I marked a reference line for the setback on the front of the legs and then I secured the bottom panel in place with pocket screws Then I moved up and secured the top stretchers in place as well using a scrap piece clamped down to position the stretchers helps keep them aligned while screwing them down I measured down to establish the drawer opening for my top drawers Then I clamped the scrap in place for reference and secured the middle stretchers as well With all the cross pieces connected to one side I moved the assembly out of the way And then I laid down the other side on the bench and put the assembly on top And working with gravity on my side always seems to go a little more smoothly After I attached the bottom and top stretchers I cut the center divider for the stretchers I sized it based on the opening between the stretchers on the other side This helped me make sure that the opening on this side was the exact same as the first one To finish off the connections on the top I install the center divider on the front and cut another one that I attached between the back stretchers The drawer slides for the top drawers need an attachment point in the center So I cut and installed a piece for that as well Now both Center dividers in the center mounting cleat are from 3/4 inch solid wood So the mounting surface is going to be flush on both sides With all the cabinet structure done I moved on to making the drawers for the dresser This dresser has two small top drawers that fit and the openings that I just made and a bay of four drawers that will fit down below in the open space The drawers are made from 3/4 inch plywood and actually made a whole separate video on how to make easy DIY drawers when I made it I Go into a lot of detail around sizing drawers working with undersized plywood versus full 3/4 inch stock in two different options for drawer bottoms There's a link in the video description and a card up above if you want to check out the detail of how to video Now the heart of the drawers in this entire build is the pocket hole joinery? I want to thank Kreg Tool the sponsor of today's video who makes the K4 Pocket hole jig and many other jigs and clamps that I use and a lot of my builds The K4 jig is great for making a lot of pocket holes quickly and it's much faster than the smaller jigs I'll have a link down below in the description to the K4 Along with the other Kreg tools that I used today like the Accu-cut track and the cabinet hardware jig that I'll be using to install the drawer pulls Before mounting the drawers I installed a quarter inch plywood back panel into the rabbet grooves that I cut earlier I Nailed in place with 18 gauge brad nails, and this helps keep the dresser square and prevents racking oh And you probably noticed. I painted the cabinet white I just used the semi-gloss white paint nothing special here To mount the drawers an account for the 3/8 of an inch setback I set a scrap of plywood flush to the front of the middle stretcher to represent the false drawer front I set my combination square flush with the back of that piece of plywood and this gives me the distance to set back the drawer slide Hardware I started at the bottom of the dresser cabinet And I used a 1 by 4 as a spacer for the first drawer slide to sit on then I pre-drilled and attached the slide with screws I switched to a larger spacer for the next drawer slide and clamped it in place on top of the first slide Using full sized spacers like this makes the drawer slide install quick and easy just clamp the spacer in place to keep it from falling Then position and attach the drawer slides for each drawer An easy way to size a spacer like this is to take the distance that you want from the top of one drawer to the top of the next drawer, then just subtract the height of your drawer slides And this is going to give you consistent spacing between your slides, and it makes install a breeze for these full extension drawer slides to install the bottom drawer I laid down a few strips of plywood offcuts to lift the drawer up off the base and then I started attaching the drawer slides I Pulled the drawer out enough to get to the first mounting holes Then I flushed up the slide with the front of the drawer and secured a screw on each side Next I pulled it out a little further and secured another screw on each side I took out the door completely to access the back mounting holes and put a third screw on each side then reinstalled the drawer For the next one I use two plywood scraps stacked on each side of the lower drawer as spacers Then I just repeated the same steps as before to secure the three screws per side I repeated this two more times, and I had all four drawers installed The top drawers, I installed the slides the same way as before using a small spacer my combination square to offset the slides Then I used the plywood strips I used for the bottom drawer and mounted the drawer in the slots the same way And once you do the mounting process it's pretty straightforward to do any drawer You just need to have the right combination of spacers for your application Next I made the top for the dresser I was gonna go with a solid wood glue up for the top But I had plenty of plywood left over and I wanted to put it to use so I cut a plywood center panel and I drill pocket holes around the edge to attach a picture frame mitered trim I used 1 by 3's for the mitered frame to give a nice solid wood look around the edge and then the paint will hide the transition to the plywood panel I cut the miter similar to how I cut the cove molding for the sides earlier I did this all the way around the panel until I had four fairly tight-fitting miters. I attached the miter frame with pocket screws and glue making sure to get lots of glue on the miter joints After securing all the pieces I flipped it over and cleaned up any glue squeeze-out before moving on to the drawer fronts The last part that needed to be cut or these false drawer fronts I cut the drawer fronts from plywood and I sized them for an eighth inch reveal around each drawer Now in the past. I've used spackle to seal the edges before painting But I wanted to try iron-on edge banding this time the banding has a heat-activated glue And you just press a hot iron on it after it cools down and dries You just come back with a chisel or a razor blade and trim off the excess now honestly I didn't like this approach it took just as long as the spackle and trimming the excess of the banding was a bit finicky I painted the top and the drawer fronts, and then I was ready for install To put the drawer fronts on I drilled holes in the drawer box and then positioned the drawer front now for inset drawers like these I use a card trick to get perfect spacing I set the drawer front on the opening then fill the gap on the top with as many cards as I can Then I split the stack in half and put 1/2 under each end of the drawer And this gives a consistent gap on the top and the bottom I Use the same trick for the sides, and then I attach the drawer fronts with screws from the inside For the lower drawer fronts I start from the bottom And I used an eighth of an inch spacer on the top of the drawer to position the next drawer front it Went quickly and then I had all the drawer fronts in place for the dresser The top of the dresser is attached using some small cleats that I cut for the top I screwed the cleats between the top stretchers, then I pre-drilled holes through the top of each of them I center and clamp down the top, and I attached it with screws since I'm attaching into plywood I don't need to factor in any wood movement. Which is really nice Now the last bit of cleanup was to install the drawer pulls I use my Craig cabinet hardware jig which helped me easily Center the poles on the upper cabinets Then I made an adjustment for the larger lower drawers and finished off the lower drawers with knobs Lining them up with the top drawer for a nice neat line of pulls And here she is all buttoned up now if you've got a good eye You probably noticed a bevel on the underside of the top that wasn't there just a second ago I noticed something a little bit off about the piece and I decided to throw this 45 degree under bevel on the top at the last Minute it really added that great finishing touch. I think it needed my daughter is super pumped about her new dresser If you wanna build your own DIY dresser, there's a link down below in the description you could check it out It'll take you to the plans that have 3d parts diagrams a cut list as well as all the materials and step-by-step instructions that you'll need If you're not subscribed to the channel already I'd love to have you as part of the team and until next time guys Get out there and build something awesome

Channel: Fix This Build That

Views: 690,342

Keywords: Diy dresser, how to make a dresser, how to build a dresser, dresser, kids dresser, tall dresser, dresser build, build, make, diy chest of drawers, chest of drawers, how to build a chest of drawers, how to make a chest of drawers, chest, drawers, kreg jig, kreg, plywood, pocket holes, pocket hole, pocket screw, woodworking projects, woodwork, diy, do it yourself, diy project, fixthisbuildthat, fix this build that

Id: SiLJUzm_omU

Length: 11min 59sec (719 seconds)

Published: Thu May 03 2018