Dresser Table

The weather has not been very cooperative lately. I have an unfinished project to show you today, but I’d like your thoughts about dresser ideas and  how to finish it out.

Do you remember this dresser I picked up recently? It was more than I usually pay, but I knew I would get 2 projects out of it, so I felt justified in paying $20 for it.

As soon as I got it off the truck, I started cutting it apart to make the 2 projects.

This is project #1, a kid’s bench made from the bottom part of a dresser. It is still not finished. I’m looking for some fun fabric for pillows, so I’ll know what color to paint the hardware.

Today, I’m going to show you what I did with the top of the dresser.

This is the bottom of the dresser top that I cut off. It needs a base. In order to give it a base I need to beef it up a little so that I’ll have a way to secure the base. I used some scrap lumber pieces and Gorilla Wood Glue.

I wanted this table to be chunky, not dainty, so I used 4×4’s for legs. I used Gorilla Wood Glue and screws to hold the legs in place.

I use a scrap piece of 4×4 block to mark the area, so I’ll know where to put the screws.

After attaching all four legs, I used screws to secure a piece of plywood to complete the base.

To cover up the chipped veneer, I selected some scrap trim pieces I had laying around.

I purposely put the legs all the way to the edge…

. . . so I could use all three drawers as seats (storage) underneath.

This stage was at the beginning of December when we had some warm(ish) weather. Then it turned cold, and I had to store it away.

When the weather warmed up enough to paint, (a couple of days after Christmas) I gave it a quick coat of some DIY Chalky Primer with my HomeRight Finish Max .

I never really liked having the legs all the way to the edge. I didn’t look how it looked so boxy.

When I started working on the drawer/seats, I realized all three of them were not going to fit after all.

Time for plan B

I removed the table from the base, then I removed all four legs. It wasn’t easy to do since I used the Gorilla Wood Glue, but I knew I would never be happy with it the way it was.

This is a dry fit to see if I like the legs—thinking about adding two more in the middle.

Meanwhile, I start finishing off the drawers. I added plywood to the bottom (so I can add wheels). Because it’s going to be for kids, I really didn’t want to hinge it because of fingers getting smashed, and the lid possibly being abused and coming off. I decided to have a lift off lid.

This is right after painting it. I didn’t want to shut the drawers because the were still a little tacky. You can see that I decided to add two more legs in the middle.

The weather turned cold again, so it is in storage for now.

The seats will have wheels. This will make a great table for kids to sit or stand at. I have two ideas to finish it off. One idea  would be a chalkboard table, the other being a Lego table. My cousin had mentioned she might be looking for one, so I got to thinking with all the storage this might make the perfect Lego table. We’ve never really had many Legos around here, so I need to figure out how to paint it and finish it off. The dresser drawers sort of look Lego(ish) don’t you think? I’d like to do some sort of Lego handles for the drawers. Have you ever made anything permanent by gluing Legos together?

I plan to cover the lids to make the seats softer. And of course it will be painted. The black is just a primer.

I’m open to suggestions to finish off this table. Can you think of a better use for it? Maybe a train table? What kind of kids table needs a lot of storage?

Hopefully we will have some warm weather soon so I can finish this project.

gail

see more repurposed dresser ideas here

EDITED TO ADD:

It’s a  DIY Lego Table