How to Build a Basic Dresser | Matching Modern Bedroom Set

hey guys it's shery from wood shop Diaries I can need to fix this no idea what I'm doing and if you followed along for very long first of all thank you so much for that but second you may have heard me mention in the past that dressers are my absolute favorite thing to build like favorite thing of all the things so I'm excited to share that in this video we're going to be building another one this dresser is part of the matching bedroom set that I've been sharing so first I shared the storage bed then I shared how to build the matching nightstands and now we're tackling the matching dresser so if you're ready to dive in and build one of my favorite things let's [Music] go so I have to confess that about halfway through building this I kind of wish that I had built this as a larger nine drawer dresser because I've already built so many six drawer dressers in the past but I'm thinking that that just means another project gets added to the to build list but for now this six dra dresser design is a classic and is the perfect size for most bedrooms just like the night stands and the matching bed I built this dresser from Red Oak the majority of the build was made from plow wood but the front and back frames were solid I made the legs 2 x3s and the top and bottom supports 2 by tws now if you have them available you can purchase these boards pre-cut to their final size but it was quite a bit cheaper at least in my case to just cut these pieces down from 2x4 boards I ripped my 2x2s down first making sure to save this extra piece for trim later then I ripped four pieces into 2x3 again saving this extra piece for trim later you can find all the dimensions and the cut diagrams in the printable plans for this project I have linked them in the video description I laid out this frame on the workbench two legs on each side and 2 by tws running between them I installed the bottom 2 x two about 3 in up from the bottom of the legs I was assembling these frames using dowels so I carefully marked and labeled each joint then drilled the dowel holes and glued it up [Music] [Music] is I really need to get some longer clamps for stuff like this but I may do by doubling up then I repeated to make two identical frames one for the front of the dresser and one for the back of the dresser everything from here is all plow wood so I started trimming down some pieces full transparency Red Oak plow wood is pricier than Birch that I normally use so I actually only use red oak for the parts that will be seen later you'll see that I cut the drawer boxes from birch plywood but we'll get there when we get there buggy can you get out of the way bud move I cut my two side panels first drilled pocket holes along the edges then installed these between the front and back frames I made sure these were flushed to the Inside Edge of the legs to make installing the drawer slides easier [Music] later [Music] I cut two pieces of plow wood to 2 and 1/2 in wide which is the equivalent of a 1x3 board so if you want to use solid wood for this that's totally fine I applied iron on edge banding to the edges and drilled pocket holes into each end these will be the dresser dividers so I I centered them into the dresser frame between the top and bottom supports I have this thing about adding Dimension lately so instead of Simply attaching the front divider flush to the front edge I bumped it back a little and installed it about a/ Quin inset once I got it positioned I screwed it in place then I repeated to add the one at the back now I needed something in the middle here to be able to mount the drawer slides too instead of adding a solid panel I just ripped some plywood strips and cut them to fit between the front and back dividers I needed six of these total I laid the dresser on its back and marked along the dividers where I wanted to place my drawer slides then I attach these plywood strips at these marks these need to be installed flush to the outside edge of the divider on each side that just makes installing the drawer slides easier we keep getting closer and closer to my favorite part of dresser building which is the drawers but before we can build those I needed to add one more detail the drawer dividers I RI some more plow wood strips about 2 and 1 12 in wide and Trimm them to fit between the divider and the legs on the front I need four total because the front edges of these pieces will be exposed I applied Edge banding to them before installing then I drilled pocket holes and installed them into the dresser I wanted to add some extra Dimension with these pieces too so since since the middle divider was installed a/4 in inset from the front edge already I wanted these to be another 1/4in inset from that which means that's a total of/ in inset from the legs so I paid careful attention to install these a halfin inset on the outside but only a/4 inch inset in the middle now it's time for the best part of the entire project building the drawers are y'all behaving I grabbed a sheet of 3/4 in birch plywood for the drawer boxes since it is a little cheaper than red oak and that's also what I already had available in the shop but either one would work fine I ripped some wider strips for the deeper drawer boxes and a couple narrower strips for the shallow top drawer boxes then I cut Doos to install the drawer bottoms into you can check out a detailed guide to How I build my drawer boxes at the link in the video description once the Doos were cut I trim the strips down to length four sides for each drawer box I applied Edge banding to the top edges of these pieces and I always like to do this with my drawer boxes but it's totally optional I've linked a detailed guide to applying Edge banding in the video description below if you want to learn more then I drilled pocket holes and assembled all six drawer boxes installing the quarin plywood bottom panels before adding the last [Music] side after the boxes were built it was time to install them but first before we install the slides let's discuss a bit about the design here I'm building this dresser to match this bed one of my favorite details that I added on this bed were these tiny trim pieces so that was a detail that I wanted to use on the dresser to kind of tie these two pieces together I plan to add the same trim to the edges of the drawer fronts this trim is basically just some 1/ qu inch thick by 3/4 in wide strips that I cut down from my red oak scraps so adding that on top of the 3/4 inch plow drawer front would make it an inch thick total so I needed to install my drawer slides 1 in inset from the front edge of the drawer dividers I installed these slides directly above the dividers which were installed flush to the bottom of the runner strips so I also used a scrap 3/4-inch plywood block at the back just to help me keep these Square now at the bottom there's not a drawer divider to measure off of so I installed the slide 1 and 1/2 inch ins set from the front of the bottom 2 by two now I know there's like a lot of measurements going on here and installing these slides sounds a little complicated but it's not I just had to make make sure to pay attention what parts I was measuring off of since I had inser various parts of the project once the slides were in the dresser I installed the drawers onto them I used some quarter-inch plywood scraps underneath the drawers then screwed the slides onto each side you can check out my full video on installing drawer boxes Linked In the video description for more details now it was time to add the drawer fronts I RI some plow wood strips Red Oak this time to use as the drawer fronts then I trim these to length I Edge bended the sides of the drawer fronts then added the trim detail that I mentioned earlier you can buy4 in by 3/4 in lattice trim but I had several pieces of thin material left after cutting my own 2 X tws for the nightstands in my last video These strips were about 1/4 in by 1 and 1/2 in so I just ripped them in half and use them for this trim I glued a piece onto each side of each drawer front and allowed to dry then I installed these onto each drawer the blue shims that I'm using here they come with the Craig drawer front installation jig they're really handy to help with spacing but any 8 in shim would work just as well I positioned each drawer so that there was about an e/ in space around all sides then screw these in from the inside of each dra box and with that the drawers are done and there's just a few more details to add here on the sides trim is totally optional but again I like the extra Dimension so I added some remember at the beginning of the video I ripped 2x3 from a 2x4 and I mentioned that I kept this extra piece that's what I used here to trim the top and bottom of the side panel then remember this strip that I saved from when I ripped the 2 by tws I use those to trim the sides here you can trim out the side panels however You' like but I like the simple details and I like the fact that I could reuse some of these off cuts for something useful the final part is adding the top I flip this upside down then I flip the dresser on top of it after I made sure the overhang was even on the sides I attached it using 2in wood screws through the top 2 x two [Applause] then I wrapped up this project with a little stain and poly I stained this well if you saw the matching bed in nightstand videos you probably already guessed I stained this in Minwax weathered Oak once it was dry I appli a couple coats of Minwax polycrylic clear coat I added some simple black knobs to the drawers and then I came back and added one more thing so I've got the dresser flipped on its back and I'm going to add a middle support here so what I've got is a piece of 2 and 1/2 in wide plywood strip and a piece of 2x3 that I cut off the legs when I cut the legs for the dresser so I cut this to 3 and 3/4 in long and then I this is 3/4 in plywood so when I put them together it's 4 and 1/2 in which is the distance from these to the bottom of the dresser legs that way everything will sit on the same plane so I'm going to glue and screw this piece to the bottom of this and then I can screw this all together into these pieces also you'll notice that I didn't add a back panel you can certainly add one if you'd like but I personally don't like to add back panels onto most projects with drawers it's just a peeve of mine but if you'd like you can cut and staple a/ Quin plywood back panel over the back to cover [Music] it and with that this very heavy dresser was finished and ready for beauty shots I hope you've enjoyed seeing this whole matching bedroom set come together I tried to tie in some tiny details in each project so that they coordinate well but they can also stand alone as their own piece too I love a simple six drawer dresser design but I do hope to eventually build a matching nine drawer design and a tall chest of drawer style so if you aren't already subscribed to the channel be sure to hit that subscribe button because I've got plenty more projects coming soon thanks so much for watching friends and until next time happy building

Channel: Shara Woodshop Diaries

Views: 35,009

Keywords: how to build a dresser, how to build a dresser for beginners, how to build a dresser out of wood, how to build a simple dresser, matching bedroom furniture DIY, matching bedroom furniture plans, matching bedroom furniture build, building a 6 drawer dresser, building a basic dresser, building a simple dresser, DIY plywood dresser, diy dresser build easy, diy dresser ideas, diy bedroom dresser ideas, woodworking projects dresser, dresser build plans, build a basic dresser

Id: iVox8A0nKH4

Length: 16min 31sec (991 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 27 2024