DIY chest of drawers

A chest of drawers is one of the comfortable and practical pieces of furniture. You can store both things and accessories in it. Depends on where it is located. Sometimes it can be difficult to choose ready-made furniture for yourself. It’s possible to create it yourself, taking into account the needs for the size and length of the boxes.

How to make a chest of drawers out of wood with your own hands

The most common furniture is made of wood. But using and processing high-quality wood is expensive. To create a chest of drawers yourself, you need to strictly follow the plan for its creation.

• The initial and important step is to create a drawing. Work is carried out strictly in accordance with it. This is necessary so that all the elements come together into one whole.
• The next stage is the purchase of necessary materials and preparation of tools for work. Materials and accessories are purchased based on the calculations made in the drawing.
• Once everything necessary for the work is available, you can begin preparing the parts. All boards are cut to size and holes are drilled to connect them together.

Assembly and decoration are the final stages of work, which, if done well, will result in an excellent chest of drawers.

What tools will you need?

To create a cabinet with your own hands, you will need a standard set of tools, which are available in many homes. It is better to use good tools. This will ensure comfort during assembly, its quality and the opportunity to enjoy the work.

• For assembly, it is necessary to have a screwdriver and a set of different bits for it, including hex bits. Before use, you should fully charge its battery to avoid slowing down the work process.
• Wood drill bits. Typically, when working with cabinet furniture, the recommended drill diameter is 5 and 7 mm.
• It is advisable to have a vacuum cleaner.
• Construction corner ruler.
• Iron/hair dryer.
• Roulette.
• Pencil.
• Fine-grit sandpaper, dry towel, dull knife.
• Material for the chest of drawers.
• Roller guides.
• Necessary accessories (guides, legs, handles).
• Confirmations, nails, screws.
• Double-sided tape.
• Edge for processing sawed edges.

Furniture components

There are a number of basic details that will be found everywhere.

• Initially, any chest of drawers has walls, which are the tabletop, side racks, and back. The front wall is missing, this is the front side of the chest of drawers, and drawers are installed in its place.
• The drawers consist of a front part, back and side walls, and a bottom. They are fixed to the fittings in the form of guides, and handles are attached to them at the finish.
• A chest of drawers, like any other piece of cabinet furniture, has a tension rail and a facade.
• Legs will serve as additional accessories; their use is optional.

How to determine dimensions

The easiest way is to create a chest of drawers project using a furniture design computer program, which will fully calculate the number of elements required for assembly, their dimensions and create a 3D computer model. You can see the future chest of drawers on it. Convenient, but this requires skills in using a personal computer and the programs “AutoCad” and “Kompac 3D”.

You can do without the use of modern computer technologies by drawing up a drawing and calculating the dimensions of the cabinet elements yourself. To do this, you need to clearly imagine the future chest of drawers in your head. Stock up on drawing supplies and get to work. It is necessary to build on the general requirements of height, width and length. The remaining parts will largely match in size. By simple calculations and drawing up a drawing on which everything needs to be calculated, there will be no difficulties with dimensions.

How to choose furniture material

Tree. Natural wood is suitable as a material for production. Durable material, safe for the environment. Its quality cannot be compared with other materials. The material is of high quality, the prices accordingly will not be cheap. Also, price variations depend on the type of wood.

The material is heavy and durable. Incredibly fragrant. Entering a room where the furniture is made of natural wood, you feel light, non-burdening air.

Furniture made from natural wood requires finishing decorative operations.

Chipboard. If this is your first experience creating furniture with your own hands, you can choose an inexpensive option to avoid damage to parts due to inexperience. Without experience, you can cut boards crookedly and take incorrect measurements. Then you will have to buy new parts.This is a waste of time and material costs. For the first experiment, a wood composite is suitable. Chipboard - pressed wood chips. Cheap, practical material from which economy class furniture is made.

DIY drawing of a chest of drawers made of wood

The design requires correct calculations so that the furniture turns out to be of high quality and fully meets the requirements.

To create a drawing you will need graph paper, a ruler, and a pencil. Here you should remember your drawing lessons and use your imagination.

1. Having thought through the design of the chest of drawers, outline its general shape and side view. Determine the desired dimensions. It is necessary to take into account the thickness of the boards and the dimensions of the components so that the elements fit together during assembly.
2. The drawings are a schematic representation of furniture in several types. On it you can read the dimensions and calculate the detailing.
3. Be sure to take into account the facts that the chest of drawers must be stable, have rigidity, and not wobble.
4. Plan the drawers, size, mark them on the drawing, the location of the guide rollers, the length of the drawers, the size of the drawer lids.
5. The guides must occupy strictly their place at the bottom of the drawer, screwed accordingly on the side wall.

ATTENTION: the gap between the walls of the boxes and the frame is at least 3 mm.

For a beginner in furniture design, the best option would be to use a ready-made drawing. In the finished version, everything has already been calculated. The main thing is to use materials of the same size and thickness.

Making a chest of drawers for cosmetics with your own hands: a step-by-step guide

The chest of drawers will be a suitable shallow place for storing cosmetic accessories. It does not take up much space, but at the same time it is capacious. Most often the size does not exceed 120 cm in width. Length and height no more than 1 meter.

1. Sawing the boards is done with a jigsaw.You cannot cut straight by hand, especially if you lack experience.
2. After preparing all the necessary elements and fittings, you can begin assembly. First, the frame of the product is assembled. They are assembled together using self-tapping screws.
3. Now screw the beams. It is important to install them opposite each other at right angles.
4. Now the boxes are installed. Secure the guides to the walls.
5. Next, boxes are assembled from the prepared elements, and guide rollers are installed on them. After this, the drawers are inserted into the guides. They should ride easily and smoothly. There should be no wide gaps between the drawer lids.
6. If everything comes together, then the calculations are correct. Now you can install the tabletop on the chest of drawers and place it in the desired location. It is good to place a cosmetic chest of drawers near the mirror.

The best material for making

Furniture material is primarily responsible for its quality. It is always difficult to work with good material, but anyone who wants clean air and high-quality furniture in their home will undoubtedly overcome the difficulties.

There is no furniture material better than natural wood. There are more convenient, practical materials, but none of better quality.

Wood exists in soft and hard types. Hard varieties: walnut, cherry, beech, walnut. This material is expensive and heavy. At the same time, it is the most expensive and durable.

Soft varieties: linden, pine, larch, alder, spruce. Soft and lightweight materials. Wood is a safe material for the home. This material is the best.

Parts for assembly

The chest of drawers consists of several parts:

• table top 1 piece;
• side racks 2 pcs.;
• bottom 1 piece;
• tie rod 1 pc.;
• dresser front;
• back wall;
• back walls of drawers;
• drawer fronts;
• bottom of the drawers.

Assembly diagram of a chest of drawers for cosmetics

Assembly follows the following instructions.

1. Cut the boards according to the required dimensions. To do this, use an electric jigsaw. You can order ready-made boards of the desired size at a hardware store. This makes the job much easier.
2. Edge the open ends of the boards. The edge is applied to the desired area. Iron through a rag with an iron heated to medium temperature.
3. Marking is being done. Places for confirmations are marked. Measuring points at the same distance on both parts to be connected. Drill the points with a wood drill. Its diameter should be slightly smaller than the confirmat. This is necessary so that the connection is tight and does not fall apart.
4. Before assembling the housing, mark the mounting locations for the guides. The marking begins from the bottom of the inner part, 30 mm from the bottom. The remaining axes are marked according to the calculation: Drawer front height +3 mm - 25 mm. This point is the middle of the guide attachment. If the height of all boxes is the same, the resulting distance is equal between all of them.
5. Connection of body parts. Screw the confirmations into the prepared holes. It is convenient to start connecting the bottom with the side posts, gradually moving upward.
6. Nail the back of the dresser. Before this step, check that all corners of the body are straight.
7. Assemble the walls of the boxes and the bottom together.
8. Fastening the guides to the marked points inside the drawer and corresponding to the drawers. Insert them into the housing.
9. Screw the tabletop.
10. Fastening the front of the drawers. First attach them with adhesive tape. If they are located evenly, screw them down.
11. Fastening of accessories. This stage includes handles and decorative elements.

The cosmetic chest is ready for use.Assembling it with your own hands is not only profitable, but also exciting.