Your Guide to a Simple DIY Dresser Upgrade

It was time for me to get a new dresser. I am slowly decorating my room. This is important to note-slowly. With all of the content we see online, it can feel as though everything needs to happen quickly, including redecorating, renovating, or the like. This step in my process was a new dresser.

Inspiration and Research

I knew the specific style I was going for was more of a vintage look. Note: I don’t have a specific complete style of the room, but I do like some vintage large furniture pieces.

I like the medium/dark wood tones and slight detail. Not extreme and ornate details and not absolutely nothing- something in the middle.

This is some of my Pinterest inspo.

Sourcing the Dresser

The primary places I looked for dresser options were thrift stores, antique shops and Facebook marketplace. I’m going to be honest, it took me longer than anticipated to find something I truly liked that was in my budget. I didn’t want to do too much work, but I was willing to do a little.

I found the dresser on Facebook marketplace. This is my first time buying a major piece of furniture from there, so there was one major mistake I made. I didn’t ask the seller if the piece came from a smoke free home. And, of course, the dresser was in the home of a smoker, so it completely reeked of cigarette smoke. Ughhhh.

Removing the Smoke Odor from the Dresser

I searched through many different online articles on how to remove cigarette smoke odor from a wooden dresser and found multiple that had similar techniques, so I combined them and created my own smoke odor removal formula💁🏾‍♀️

I don’t have exact measurements, but this is what I used and the order I used them:

Remove all of the drawers and shake baking soda over the entire dresser and over all of the drawers.
Sit the dresser and drawers outside in the sun for an entire day.
Mix Dawn dish detergent with boiling hot water. It needs to be enough to wash the entire piece you’re working on. I needed a lot, so used a mop bucket.
Wash the entire piece with the dawn mixture. The baking soda should wash away. Dry immediately as to not soak the wood piece. I did this process twice.
Use Murphy Wood Concentrate wood soap over the entire piece.
Sprinkle with baking soda again.
Dust off the baking soda and the smell should be gone.

Note: all of this should be completed outside. The sun helps to remove excess odor and acts as a natural disinfectant.

Additions and Transformations

There were a set of drawer knobs that were missing from this piece. This was the only thing that needed an upgrade. The dresser itself didn’t need anything cosmetic completed on it except for the order.

I found these cute bee drawer knobs from BeautifulDaySupplies on Etsy. The finish matched perfectly with the existing handles.