Fabric or Wallpaper Covered Furniture

I have an old chest of drawers for a child’s room. Not an antique, but solid. The drawers still pull in and out pretty easily. So, it isn’t near the end of a useful life. Unfortunately, it is not very pretty. The one side has a lot of damage and one of the drawers has a deep gash across the front of it. I could repair the gash with wood putty, but fixing the side so it was nice and smooth would be pretty hard. So, do I throw it out? Not yet.

I’m thinking I will get some fun wallpaper – maybe a mural with a scene and something coordinating – and cover the damaged side completely with the wallpaper mural. I may even “build” a window frame and panes with some wood trim over top for added realism or make tree branch hooks coming out from a tree in the paper…I guess it depends on what I find. Then, I’ll cover the drawer fronts with the coordinating paper.

I’m sure someone somewhere has already done this because it is such an easy way to get the painted furniture mural look you see on big wardrobes.

If you don’t want to mess with wallpaper, you can do the same thing with fabric. I covered a bureau’s drawer fronts with a Christmas plaid a few years ago and used it to organize my tags, wrapping paper, gift bags, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of it and I no longer have it, but it turned out to be quite cute.

Have you done some creative bureau remodeling to save a bureau that doesn’t look very nice anymore?

Photo: SXC