How To Train Your Dragon Dresser Makeover

This antique dresser had seen it’s better days and was in serious need of a makeover. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how this dresser got a How to Train Your Dragon Makeover flair to fit right into my teenage son’s bedroom.

This story starts like many others have before in my home. I walked into a thrift store and saw this dresser standing there needing to come home with me.

I think the real deciding factor was the point that it was only $30. That’s usually when I quickly walk up to the check out and pay before someone else discovers that under that interesting paint job, is beautiful antique wood.

The original knobs were long gone unfortunately. The previous owner had replaced them with some hobby lobby knobs. They weren’t terrible, but slightly too small for the stature of this piece. But I saved them for a possible future project since there’s nothing wrong with them.

The dresser also had it’s original wooden caster wheels, which is always cool to discover. This is a well made dresser and is close to 100 years old.. And 100 years later it’s still standing solid. That’s a testament to the workmanship of the creator and the mastery of skills that went into it.

When I find a piece of furniture like this I always ask myself How can I leave this piece better than when I found it? How can I honor it’s origin? And if it’s lasted 100 years, what can I do to ensure it’s around for another 100?

Phase Number One – The First Coat of Paint Stripper

There were two coats of paints on the sides of the drawers. I have discovered through the years that I have a thing about ensuring a clean paint job. So I prefer even the insides and sides of drawers to be a clean wood surface. Also, it helps it continue to open and close without sticking.

So, to start the makeover I took my old friend *Citristrip and began my first coat of paint stripper.

You can see the paint start to bubble up. This is where I start to get excited. Until I realized it had 3 coast of paint to take off. Which meant multiple rounds of paint stripper.

And days worth of dirty, sticky, messy work. All in my living room, mind you. But it’s like a good book you just can’t put down and you keep chugging along.

Finally, I got off the first coat of paint and stripper with my *Metal Scraper. It wasn’t looking very well at this point. In many ways at this point you may look at your piece and start to panic thinking to yourself What have I done? As I have asked myself many many times before.

I find all furniture projects have their definite ugly phase.

Phase Two – Second Coat of Paint Stripper & Sanding Bare

Overall I did two full coats of *Citristrip. I let it sit for 30 minutes, watch the color change from an orange to a very light pink. Then scrape everything I can get off with my *metal scraper. In the tight spaces, I did use a razor blade to gently persuade paint out of the cracks.

In the end, however, paint does sometimes get in the grain of the wood. There was a lot of white paint stuck in the grain of the drawers. And because it was veneer I could only sand so much before compromising it.

I managed to completely clean the entire piece down to bare wood. This was such an exciting day when I finally finished sanding it. The beautiful curves and character of the piece were finally in full view. And of course I forgot to get pictures of that part of the project. Maybe I was rushed because I was so excited? We’ll go with that explanation.

There are plenty of times however, when I was not exactly sure what I was going to do with it. And a great deal of that decision depends on how a piece takes stain. In this case the drawers were a completely different wood than the rest of the piece.

Choosing how to move forward in the makeover with the differences in wood

Also, at this point the edges of the drawers were a hazy color. The drawer fronts have a curvature before they go flat and it was a completely different wood color that the faces because of the veneer vs the base, which was likely ash. It had a green tint to it and that was definitely not what I was looking for. So, in the end I chose to paint the side of the faces of the drawers black.

I chose to let the chips fall where they may and stain the entire piece, drawer faces and all, *Early American by Minwax. It is my absolute favorite stain color because of its warmth. This is where I realized the drawers were possibly a mahogany, so the stain gave them a redder tint. And the rest of the piece stayed more true to the stain color. I chose to just run with it. After all, this is the piece, isn’t it? I simply applied with a *lint-free rag (use *gloves unless you want brown hands).

Phase Three – Attempt at Masking the Paint in the Grain

I did somewhat of an experiment. I painted the parts of the drawers with the paint in the grain a dark grey or black color called Little Black Dress by Behr (it has a hint of blue in it). My hope was that instead of white showing, it would be black. Which would hide so much better when stained.

In the end it was mostly a failure. The only parts it covered up were the bigger gauges in the veneer on the edges of the drawers. Which, I suppose was still a win, in a way.

At this point I even considered painting the drawer fronts completely black. But then I was going to draw and then paint How to Train Your Dragon Dragon Class emblems on the drawer fronts. I wouldn’t be able to see the pencil enough to confidently paint tiny dragons.

So, I chose to keep them raw wood to start and paint the dragons in black with gold accents then stain over the drawings.

I chose to sand the drawers back down to bare wood and start on the next phase, the drawing.

To start I tried out my designs on the drawers in pencil just to get an idea for the piece. I chose to personalize this dresser and do a How to Train Your Dragon Makeover on it to suit my oldest son for his bedroom. He loves everything dragon and I knew this would be really fun for me.

Phase Four – Onto the Art Project

I knew the piece needed to look masculine and even have a sort of Viking flair to it. If I was going to pull off a How to Train Your Dragon Makeover on this dresser I needed to harness subtlety because I was definitely not wanting it to look like a licensed piece. I wanted it to look like something that could have been in a bedroom of a modern-day Viking.

Dark wood, brooding black and gold accents, and we even found the perfect black cast iron hardware in Hobby Lobby for the drawers.

But first, the art. I found the pictures on google for all of the dragon classes and used Canva to make sure they were all the same size. Print them out for free here. I printed them out and then painstakingly cut them out, laminated them, and then cut them out with an exact-o-knife to create stencils.

As you can tell the pencil markings didn’t show up near clear enough for me to be comfortable trying to paint in the lines. So I chose to go back in with a *Fine Line sharpie. Now it’s ready for the detailed painting.

I used the *smallest detail paint brush I could find just to start around the outline. I used the paint Little Black Dress that I already had. Then used a slightly larger brush to get the insides. I painted them all black and then after they dried I came back in with an *acrylic gold paint by Folkart just to accent certain parts of the dragons and give them eyes.

How to Train Your Dragon Dresser Makeover Reveal

In the end after all of the hours hunched over stripping, sanding, staining, painting with a tiny paint brush inside the lines of little dragons I believe all my effort paid off. It was 100% worth it.

You can see the side view where all that paint used to be gunked on, now it’s completely clean. How to Train Your Dragon (print the free file by clicking the link) emblems painted on the fronts and the frame of the drawer faces painted black. Notice the cool cast iron drawer knobs which even have some gold on them as well.

It isn’t a perfect dresser by any means, but it has so much character and it isn’t something you could ever find again because it is one of a kind. I hope he keeps it forever and passes it down to his kids. How to Train Your Dragon has become apart of our family in a real way. It’s apart of my son’s story and obsession with all things dragons and now there’s an heirloom piece to tell that story for years.

This project was so fun I’ve been dreaming of a time when I can do something like this again, maybe for my other children down the line. But I wouldn’t do it for just anything. It was a lot of work and I definitely would make sure it wasn’t just a passing phase before investing that much time and effort into a piece.

But I did consider if at some point he decides he doesn’t want the dragons (over my dead body). They can be sanded off and restained.

What do you think of this How to Train Your Dragon Dresser Makeover? Did I nail it? Let me know in the comments!

If you like this makeover you will definitely like How to Refinish A Painted Wardrobe!

Thanks so much for visiting today! There is a complete printable tutorial below with detailed instructions on this project and how you can do your own, make sure to check that out!

Julie

Tools & Supplies I used

As an Amazon Associate I earn from Qualifying Purchases. The Links below are *Affiliate Links.

1. Citristrip
2. Rubber Gloves, Goggles, Apron
3. Chip Brush
4. Metal Scraper
5. Sand Paper; 80, 120, and 220 grit
6. Orbital Sander
7. Early American Stain by Minwax
8. Lint-Free Rags
9. Black Acrylic Paint by Apple Barrel
10. Gold Acrylic Paint by FolkArt
11. Polycrylic, Wipe-On Poly, Waterlox, or Furniture Wax
12. Fine Detail Brush Set
13. 2″ Cub Brush for applying Topcoat