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Super easy fluted molding hack for dresser makeover

DIY projects· furniture makeover

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Today’s post is going to be a long one. Since redoing my Queen Ann secretary desk and my bleached French Provincial dresser, I have been wanting to also redo our midcentury modern bedroom dresser. Now that the weather is cooler again, the time was finally right to tackle it. I ended up turning it into a beauty with fluted molding even though that wasn’t my initial plan.
I purchased the dresser on Craigslist in 2013. It was such a beautiful piece but the veneer was damaged in several areas, especially the corners which you couldn’t see in the listing photo. So I ended up painting it white while leaving some wood details and giving the handles a pop of neon for my more colorful days when I started blogging. Over those 7 years of having the dresser, the paint started to scratch and chip on the top and sides from my family’s abuse.

midcentury modern Stanley dresser before

painted dresser with neon handles

(we still had carpet in the bedroom back then)

I had planned on stripping the dresser’s veneer to reveal the wood under it since it appeared to have a nice wood that was showing on the damaged corners.

chipped veneer corners

I also checked the drawer insides to see what wood was showing and was pleased with what I saw.

drawer cubby sides

So I started sanding my heart out. I was shocked to see that the center of the dresser side had particle board under the veneer. I mean who on earth does that? This is a vintage Stanley dresser and I hope I can avoid creating heartache for someone else who is considering redoing a vintage Stanley dresser.

hidden particle board under dresser veneer

I was so frustrated that I actually considered tacking a sledgehammer and smashing the thing into a million pieces so I could burn it and start with a new dresser. I even searched Facebook Marketplace for a new cheap dresser that I could use instead for that area of our bedroom. The fact is though that I love this dresser’s shape and the size is just right for where I need it. After letting it marinated in my head for a bit and visiting my favorite furniture websites, I got some inspiration and hoped that I could turn it around again even if I had originally not planned to paint it again.

My light bulb moment

When Mandi of Vintage Revivals posted about her amazing fluted wall treatment, it got me thinking that this could be the way to go for my dresser drawer fronts. As you can see the wood was also all mismatched on the drawer fronts and had green and black tones to the grain. That means the drawers are poplar wood. You can get the green tone out of the poplar wood by bleaching it with oxalic acid but you can’t get the black tone and grain out. After I had bleached the cherry secretary desk and the French Provincial dresser, I didn’t want to do it again and just wanted a different look.

mismatched wooden drawer fronts

Mandy used half-round molding for her fluted wall treatment which ended up being pretty expensive. I went to my local home improvement stores and the half-round molding they had left wouldn’t even have covered half the drawers and cost me about $90, so no thanks to that price and having to search at other stores for more molding.

Friends on Instagram messaged me Jenna Sue Design Co.’s fluted dresser makeover but she used white fluted trim made from solid urethane. I didn’t want to paint the entire dresser again though and have some wooden detail instead like originally planned. That fluted molding is also a tad bit pricey.

Super easy fluted molding hack

So I went for a walk through the aisles of Lowes again and when I spotted pole wrap at one end of the aisle, I knew what I was going to try to do. It was exactly what I wanted and the wood veneer on it matched the oak legs on the dresser which I also wanted to keep bare wood. You might ask, what on earth is pole wrap? Well it wraps poles, haha, those ugly metal poles in basement constructions that keep the first floor of a home supported.

oak pole wrap that looks like fluted molding

So in today’s post, I want to show you how I turned my disaster dresser into a fluted beauty that I’m super happy with. My inspiration was actually the below pictured fluted West Elm dresser which costs a whopping $1200. Fluted pieces of furniture are all very expensive.white and wood West Elm fluted dresser

A roll of pole wrap is around $45 and super easy to work with. Below I want to show you the color difference of the half-round molding compared to the oak pole wrap. Sine I didn’t want to paint the molding, the woodtone of the polewrap is definitely more what I was looking for.

oak pole wrap compared to pine half-round molding

 

Materials needed for this easy and affordable fluted dresser makeover

  • pole wrap
  • 80-Tooth miter saw blade
  • liquid nails or Loctite
  • sand paper in different grit count (I finished with 220 grit)
  • tack cloth (my favorite thing when redoing furniture)
  • brush
  • foam roller
  • clear matte polycrylic varnish
  • edge pull drawer handles
  • optional spray gun (I love that thing)
  • painters tape
  • white paint
  • compound miter saw or table saw
  • wood clamps
  • box cutter
  • spackling knife
  • toothpicks
  • painters tape

How to apply the fluted molding material to drawers

The pole wrap consists of carboard backing that is covered in some type of MDF and then coated with very thin oak veneer that has flutes cut into the surface to make it flexible so it can be wrapped around round poles.

paper backing of pole wrap

(backside of pole wrap)

You are able to cut strips of the pole wrap simply with a box cutter since you only have to actually cut the carboard backing. Super easy!

cutting pole wrap with box cutter

Cutting the veneer strips was a little bit more tricky. The problem I ran into was that the wood veneer shredded when cutting it on my compound miter saw. But my friend Katja of A Home for Design suggested that I’d give a new saw blade with a higher tooth count a try. Of course they only had the more expensive saw blades left at the store! I feel like everything is still sold out everywhere. I ended up buying the Spyder 12-in 80-Tooth Tungsten Carbide-Tipped Steel Miter Saw Blade which did the trick and cut the pole wrap like butter without any shredding. I didn’t even have to tape the area where the cuts were made. This cheaper one HERE should do the trick as well.

Cutting the pole wrap

I don’t have a table saw so I used my compound miter saw. You can either wrap the material into a roll and cut it or fold in half. I tried both. On a table saw you can of course lay it flat to cut.

wrapping pole wrap into roll for cutting

I used the drawers as guides to mark the needed height. You can clamp a piece of wood, so you get the right measurement for each drawer.

TIP: Measure every drawer!!! Mine were all different!

clamped piece of wood on miter saw for even length cutting

Here you can see how I cut the material folded in half as well.

how to cut pole wrap flat

mismatched wooden drawer fronts

Another tip: Lay your drawers and fluted molding material out before attaching because of how the grain can differentiate. Of course, if you are painting everything this step isn’t needed. I ended up having to buy two pole wraps because I messed up cutting with the old saw blade and the difference was very visible between the two different batches.

view of different batch of pole wrap color and grain

(you can definitely tell which sections are different)

Gluing the fluted molding

Before I started gluing my cut pieces to the drawers I made sure to wipe them with my trusty tack cloth. Dust and dirt don’t have a chance with these sticky wipes. I never refinish a piece of furniture without tack cloth.

wiping sanded drawers with tack cloth

Then I spackled on the glue with a spackling knife. This ensures that the glue is thin and doesn’t squirt out on the sides or seems too much.

applying glue with sparkling knife

At the seams where the fluted molding butts against each other I even scraped access glue away with a butter knife.

scraping the edge of pole wrap with knife before adding next section

If the glue still spilled out by the seams, I used a tooh pick to remove the access glue.

cleaning seam of fluted molding with toothpick

Make sure that the fluted sections allign correctly from each drawer to the next.

aligning fluted molding on drawers

You can insert the drawers into the dresser before clamping to make sure everythign alligns correct. My sections didn’t fall off and were flexible enough to still move around.

drawers inserted into dresser to align fluted molding properly

I used scrap wood pieces and bricks to make sure the fluted molding was securely glued in place.

clamping fluted molding with large piece of wood

You could say I went a little bit overboard with the clamping ๐Ÿ˜‰

gluing and clamping fluted molding

At the edges I had to add a single piece of molding and there were little gaps left on each end. It didn’t end up mattering and wasn’t visible on the finished dresser.

adding final piece of pole wrap on edge

See the little edge gap below?

view of small edge gap

I let the glue dry over night before removing the clamps. On some drawers the fluted molding slid a tad bit and was slightly sticking over the edge of the drawers. It wasn’t a big deal and I used my orbitual sander and 220 grit sandpaper to lightly sand the molding flush with the drawers again.

Instructions for the rest of the dresser makeover

The disaster side where I had to remove all the veneer to make it an even surface again, had to be patched and sanded. I went from 80 grit to 220 grit.

patched particle board before painting

I also made sure to tape the drawer fronts before painting. This way less dust is flying around and the inside doesn’t get all messy. Make sure to cover the area where you are painting with some type of drop cloth

taped and sealed drawer cubbies before painting

I use spray cans of Kilz primer. which is my favorite primer but since it is oil-based, I don’t like rolling it or using it in my sprayer which is why I use spray cans. Make sure you shake the can long and hard before using.

spraying kilz primer on dresser

The primer didn’t get into the grain well which is why I decided to actually use a roller to roll on the actual paint.

visible grain under primer

Normally I use my spray gun though. The roller ensured that I got into the grain. I use a small foam roller and apply very light pressure. Two coats did the trick.

Oh and for the paint I used the same eggshell Ultra White by Valspar that I use on my walls. I know a lot of folks like using something more durable but I’ve had good results with this method since I apply a clear coat at the end.

I always spray the clear coat with my sprayer. It works great but you have to make sure that you only spray very thin layers. The clear coat is very runny and can leave drips easily. It happened to me and I had to sand again.

I spray about 3-4 coats and always lightly sand in between with 220 grit sandpaper and whiping with tack cloth in between coats.

spraying clear coat on dresser

Finding the right hardware

I really wanted to find thin edge pulls like my inspiration dresser. I was afraid that I wouldn’t find any but I did. The edge pulls I used come in a ten pack and I only needed 5 but the price wasn’t bad so I didn’t care that I have 5 left.

My problem was finding thin pulls that were deep enough the thick drawers. Mine ended up being pretty thick since I glued extra material onto them.

Attaching the pulls is super easy since you can find the center so easily with the fluted molding and being able to just count the flutes.

attaching edge pulls to drawers

I ended up leaving the wood veneer plain and without a clear coat. I can always add that later. The reason I didn’t is that the matte clear coat changes the color of the wood tremendously and I liked the color fo the plain oak so much better. See below what I mean.

comparing clear coated oak to plain oak

 

Finished dresser with fluted molding

Let me show you what the dresser looks like in our bedroom under the TV. We have a dinosaur flat screen TV, haha.

how to reface drawers with fluted molding

Oh and I’ve been working on a bathroom refresh as well. You can see the sneak peek of the color change.

view of dresser with fluted molding from bed

(You can find my new rug HERE, basket HERE and my macrame tutorial HERE)

close-up of fluted molding with drawer pulls

side view of painted dresser body with fluted drawers

view of oak feet and oak fluted molding on drawers

The black detail at the bottom of the feet is still the original molding and color from the old Craigslist dresser.

view of oak feet and black molding detail

view of right side of dresser with fluted molding and white painted body

close-up full frontal view of dresser with oak fluted molding

View more of my furniture makeovers

Turning my dark stained cherry wood desk into light wood

Turning my dark stained cherry wood desk into light wood

French Provincial wood bleach dresser makeover

French Provincial wood bleach dresser makeover

Ikea MONGSTAD faux grasscloth wallpaper makeover

Ikea MONGSTAD faux grasscloth wallpaper makeover

Super easy fluted molding hack for dresser makeover

Super easy fluted molding hack for dresser makeover

final look of c

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Pink Chalk Paint Dresser

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Modern Oak Dresser Makeover

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striped washitape mirror makeover

Black and white striped mirror makeover

I’m glad I didn’t give up after all even though I almost lost my mind a long the way LOL. Don’t you agree that the shape of this dresser is just very special? But even with a different shape you can turn a dresser into a fluted beauty if it has a different shape. And with the help of the pole wrap it is also a lot more affordable.

Also check out what I made with the pole wrap scarps HERE.

fluted planter sleeve made from pole wrap scraps

I’m off to finish adding more molding to the bathroom, giving the floor the much needed makeover and also painting and adding more molding to the bedroom. Can’t wait to share all of that with you.

Tschüß,

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Comments

  1. Becky Ackroyd says

    October 14, 2020 at 8:37 am

    The dresser turned out fabulous!
    I refinish/paint furniture, and almost every MCM piece is constructed with veneer on the sides, and many times on the top. There were a few high end brands that didn’t do this, but for the most part, this is the standard.

    • Julia says

      October 14, 2020 at 12:58 pm

      Thank you! I agree, yes they are but I have never seen the particle board in the middle like this. It usually has cheap wood under it.

      • Rebecca Ackroyd says

        October 14, 2020 at 4:21 pm

        I live in Canada, so maybe the Canadian manufacturers were more into particle board/plywood under the veneer, but I see particle board/plywood a lot on pieces here. ๐Ÿ™‚ I can’t say that I’ve ever foud a dresser by the big name US or Scandinavian MCM companies here, though. Mostly Canadian manufacturers (when the pieces are marked).

        • Julia says

          October 15, 2020 at 6:35 am

          Hmmm that’s so interesting Rebecca.

  2. Tammara says

    October 14, 2020 at 8:52 am

    Wow, stunning! You are a creative person, beautiful transformation of the dressor

    • Julia says

      October 14, 2020 at 12:58 pm

      Thank you Tammara

  3. Michele says

    October 14, 2020 at 9:40 am

    This is brilliant!! I have 2 dressers that could use this!!

    • Julia says

      October 14, 2020 at 12:59 pm

      Oh good luck and tank you.

  4. Nancy says

    October 14, 2020 at 10:00 am

    Another fantastic job!

    • Julia says

      October 14, 2020 at 12:59 pm

      Thank you so much Nancy.

  5. Jen says

    October 14, 2020 at 10:58 am

    How cool is this!!! You did a great job!

    • Julia says

      October 14, 2020 at 12:59 pm

      Thanks so much Jen! I’m glad it is over ๐Ÿ˜‰

  6. Adrienne says

    October 14, 2020 at 11:15 am

    That is stunning. Wow.

    • Julia says

      October 14, 2020 at 12:59 pm

      Thanks so much Adrienne.

  7. Arli says

    October 14, 2020 at 12:56 pm

    Absolutely fantastic! I cannot believe how incredible this looks. Congrats.

    • Julia says

      October 14, 2020 at 1:00 pm

      Thank you Arli for the sweet compliment.

  8. carol says

    October 14, 2020 at 1:22 pm

    You are so talented!!

    • Julia says

      October 15, 2020 at 6:33 am

      Thanks so much Carol

  9. Susan I says

    October 14, 2020 at 1:39 pm

    Wow, simpy amazing transformation. I probably would have just taken a sledgehammer to it but your perserverance really paid off!

    • Julia says

      October 15, 2020 at 6:34 am

      I was very close to letting my frustration out on the dresser ๐Ÿ˜‰ Thanks Susan.

  10. Barb says

    October 14, 2020 at 2:24 pm

    That is awesome! Turned out beautifully. Glad you stuck with it cause this is going to give a lot of diy inspiration. Good job!

    • Julia says

      October 15, 2020 at 6:34 am

      I figured it also would be ridiculous for me to give up since I have a blog and I should be helping others figure things out if they run into a similar issue ๐Ÿ˜‰ Thanks Barb

  11. Cassie Bustamante says

    October 15, 2020 at 5:10 am

    this is ridiculously amazing, Julia!!! I am in love!!! GENIUS.

    • Julia says

      October 15, 2020 at 6:36 am

      Thanks Cassie, I have a feeling I’ll be using the pole wrap again.

  12. Kathie says

    October 15, 2020 at 9:42 pm

    Another awesome transformation….you are incredibly talented! I SO enjoy your projects, this one is beautiful!!!

    • Julia says

      October 19, 2020 at 8:01 am

      Thanks so much Kathie!

  13. Barbara says

    October 16, 2020 at 8:09 am

    I love it! It’s better than your inspiration piece. Very well done.

    • Julia says

      October 19, 2020 at 8:01 am

      Well that’s an awesome compliment Barabara. Thanks so much

  14. [email protected] says

    October 28, 2020 at 11:57 am

    I’m still so in awe of this!!

    • Julia says

      October 29, 2020 at 7:57 am

      Thank you, Ashley!

  15. Bond Corp says

    October 28, 2020 at 11:15 pm

    Such an informative article! I agreed that at first, we should use a tack cloth to get better finishing for flawless results. By using tack cloth you can easily remove small dust and dirt particles from the surface. Your blog is very well written and all the information provided by you is really very helpful. Thank you for sharing! Keep Posting!

  16. aussiebushgirl says

    November 9, 2020 at 9:41 pm

    Stunning and very creative! Another beautiful restoration.

    • Julia says

      November 10, 2020 at 6:11 am

      Thanks so much, Heather.

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Cuckoo4Design


I’m a German citizen living in the US who is cuckoo for all things DIY, design and pets. This is my design journey of our small home on a budget. Come stay a while and look around.

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