You know, I’ve never thought about lining furniture drawers until I started refinishing old furniture. Whenever we bought new pieces the inside of the drawers looked fresh enough that I left them alone. But old dressers or side tables are a totally different story. Actually for the first used dresser we bought the drawers were already lined with a thick liner that almost felt like plastic. The only thing I had to do with that was wipe it down with a cleaner. Then came the small side table in my daughter’s room. This was not used furniture buy bit she has been using it for a few years and the insides showed serious wear and tear. Then came the Campaign desk again in her room. Considering the effort required to line all the drawers I skipped that step and spray painted the insides too. For this campaign dresser redo I was determined to add some color to the insides as well but where do I find paper that fit exactly? Frankly after how long it took to finish this dresser I was in no mood to cut the liners to size and line up the pieces. So getting hold of paper that was the same width as the dresser was key. One day I found my mate in the paper aisle at Michaels; Recollection craft paper!
A close look at the width (14 inches) and I knew it would fit snuggly inside the drawer. So what do you need to line dresser drawers?
Materials
- A 14 inch x 20 ft roll of craft paper
- Scissors
- Mod Podge
- Paper plate & Foam Brush ( for applying Mod Podge)
- Old credit card
- Dresser drawers (of course!)
Tutorial
When preparing the drawers for lining it is important to paint at least half an inch outline around the edges of the dresser base. This is your safely net in case the liner doesn’t align perfectly with the edge. You know, this way the old finish will not show through any gaps between the liner edges and the dresser sides.
- Start by laying the roll in the drawer, aligning one end of the paper with that of the dresser. There was some imperfection on one edge of my paper hence the extra allowance on the right side.
- While using a weight (or the Mod Podge bottle) to keep the edge in place unroll the paper. When you’ve reached the other end bend along the edge making sure the paper is as flat as possible inside the dresser.
- Remove the paper from the dresser and cut along the fold line.
- Apply Mod Podge liberally on the inside of the dresser.
- Now starting from one side place the paper gently inside the dresser making sure that the edges of the dresser and liner are aligned.
- Using the old credit card gently rub any air bubbles out, always rubbing from the center to the end.
- Once you’ve got all the air bubbles out apply another layer of Mod Podge to seal the paper in.
- Wait for the Mod Podge to dry over night to put the dresser drawers back in.
I love opening the dresser drawer and seeing the unexpected, some fun color and pattern in the bottom. Don’t you?
Leave a Reply