[saw whirring]
[drill whirring]
[saw whirring]
[quirky music]
- I'm Sam Klemick.
I would describe my style as playful,
sculptural and bold.
- Hello, my name is Drew Scott,
and I would describe my style as
attainable, DIY and eclectic.
[upbeat music]
- Mostly just excited.
The way that I started getting into furniture
was actually redoing stuff I found on the side of the road.
So, it kind of felt like going back
to my roots, a little bit.
And I loved taking thing apart to see how they're made.
- I've actually seen this dresser before,
and I was gonna use it in a project
in the past, but I never did.
So, I can not wait to bring it to life today.
[upbeat music]
I really wanted to give this piece a wood look,
because it's just a white melamine dresser to start.
- Even though the dresser is made out of MDF and plywood,
and it has this white laminate on it,
I really want the end result to still look
as though it's like a piece of fine woodwork.
- So, when I came to thinking about this design,
I wanted to mix vintage with modern,
and kind of get this vintage revival look.
And I'm doing the vintage element of that
through a burl wood application,
but I'm doing it in like a checkerboard fashion,
so, it kind of adds a little bit of a trendy element.
And then the modern side of it,
we're adding this really great arched base to the bottom.
So, I think marrying those two will create
a really great juxtaposition.
- [Sam] So, I did a melt-y,
sort of design for the drawer faces.
I wanted to kind of create some movement.
I chose red oak for the type of plywood,
because the grain line also kind of has this,
really beautiful figuring.
And then, I knew I also wanted to
create a pull handle, just to give it like,
one added layer of texture to the piece.
[upbeat music]
- Part of this project today,
we're actually using extremely minimal supplies.
Just some plywood, which I already had cut down
at the hardware store.
Some contact paper I ordered online.
And then, just some brackets and some screws,
and that's really all we're gonna need.
- I knew I was gonna do mostly plywood,
so, I knew the place to go to was Anderson Plywood.
I went with my cut list.
[wood rummaging]
So, I was actually able to have the guys help me
with some of the bigger cuts,
which I knew would be a huge time saver for me.
[saw whirring]
- So, the first step in our process is going to be
to create the arched base,
and I'm going to be doing that just by using
a pencil and a paint stick,
and use it as a make-shift compass.
And then we can just use this to trace our arch.
- I make my template out of MDF
because it is cheap.
It's also a perfectly flat surface.
I'll take it to the bandsaw.
I'll use a really small blade,
that makes it really easy to cut curves.
We also have a round sander.
And really just shape the piece.
After I finish my template,
I'm gonna cut out my new drawer faces.
This is a handheld router,
and I just put my top following bit in,
so, I'm gonna take this and move around the template
and trim of the excesses.
And then it allows me to perfectly replicate
the shape that's on top.
[saw whirring]
[wood thudding]
- Here's our base!
So, we have our arches cut,
and the side pieces cut.
And I'm gonna use these L brackets
to attach everything together with some wood screws.
I personally love working with L brackets
because it gives you a clean finish on the outside,
so you can make sure it has that structure
and stability on the inside of your piece,
and it's hidden, but on the outside,
you have smooth, clean, wood.
[jaunty music]
- So, it is safe to switch out the dresser feet
mostly because, once I landed on my droopy design,
I realized that the bottom droop
would be too close to the ground.
And I decided to laminate two pieces together
to also make them a bit thicker,
just to add some more structure.
[jaunty music]
[sander whirring]
My tabletop is already cut to the size that I want.
And I'm just gonna round off the edges
to give it a smooth feeling.
- Next up is my favorite part,
which is the contact paper.
Contact paper is essentially printed vinyl
that's also removable.
So, a lot of people use this in rental friendly upgrades.
You can redo your countertops with this,
you can use it on DIY projects.
I'm actually gonna be cutting my burl wood contact paper
into four inch by four inch squares.
Sharpie-ing all of the edges,
so that we don't have a white core,
and it kind of define our checkerboard.
And then applying them to the
entire dresser and arched base.
- For this side of the dresser,
I'm gonna keep it pretty simple.
I am planning on sanding the white melamine material off,
and applying a red oak veneer.
You actually just peel it off and stick it on.
I've never used it before and I'm super excited.
Honestly, it's so easy.
[wood scraping]
- So, what I do is I just find the exact center point
of that piece, place my first square,
and then work out, that way when you get to the ends,
it could be even on both sides.
When I apply these, I actually kind of maneuver them
to see which grain looks most different from
the one previous, so I'll probably do this one right here.
[jaunty music]
- So, I'm gonna be edge banding a lot of the dresser,
creating this faux effect
that this piece is made our of real wood.
[upbeat music]
- I'm definitely getting vintage vibes
from this burl wood.
Has almost this like antique toning to it.
[jaunty music]
- And now we have that nice, wood finish on the edge.
I decided I wanted to make handles for the dresser.
So, I have my squared off piece of wood,
I have my pre-drilled holes,
which will make it super easy to attach
the dowels, and become a handle.
A lave is made for wood turning,
and basically turning is taking something
that's square and making it round.
[wood scraping]
So, when I put the wood on the lave,
I am going to start by just getting it
to be a perfectly round piece.
As you turn real hard wood,
you see this beautiful figuring and grain line
that sort of transforms as your turn it on the lave,
and I wanted to make sure to capture that for the piece.
[upbeat music]
- The dresser is fully wrapped and it looks amazing.
Now, I didn't add the legs that it came with
because we're gonna be attaching it
to the base that we constructed.
And we first need to bring this outside
to give it a coat of our gloss finish.
A lot of vintage burl wood pieces actually
have an extremely glossy finish,
and I want to achieve that same look as well,
so, I'm gonna be using a glossy top coat.
- I'm gonna use a finish called Rubio Monocoat.
A lot of times with stains, you have to put the stain,
and then you have to seal it with something.
With Rubio, you don't have to do that,
it's kind of an all-in-one.
Because we have this melt-y design effect,
I think I'm gonna play with three different colors of stain.
I kind of wanna create an ombré effect.
So, I'm gonna do the tops and the sides
as the lightest color in our ombré.
I think it'll just bring some unity to the whole piece,
and then you just focus on the drawers.
- The gloss coats dry, and we're going to put
the base that we constructed onto the dresser.
[drill whirring]
Okay.
So, this material right here is called Lauan,
and as you can see it's nice and flexible.
And we're going to be pushing it
into this arch here, to give it a finished look.
Oh no, she wants to snap.
[wood snapping]
[screaming] [wood snapping]
[wood thudding] [screaming]
[laughing] Oopsies.
I didn't mean for that to happen.
[laughing]
[contemplative music]
- Okay.
The drawers are the moment of truth.
When I first saw the dresser as it was,
I just wanted to switch it up
because I felt like the dresser just like,
deserved something a little bit nicer.
Red oak bottom that we switched out.
[contemplative music]
[drawer thudding]
It's making a weird sound, but it's working.
[contemplative music]
- Pole wrap came to the rescue.
It's flexible, and it's gonna fit our arch perfectly.
Going in with some wood stain to just stain the underside,
and make it match more at the base.
[drawers sliding]
- There we go.
I love that the grain line of the wood
sort of takes on this wavy effect.
[hammer knocking wood]
Bada-bing, bada-boom.
[singing] We've got a drawer.
[upbeat music]
- So, I wasn't too sure if I was
gonna add hardware to start,
but then I found this rectangular hardware,
which I feel like just enhances our checkerboard pattern,
and I actually really like it, a lot.
[upbeat music]
[hammer knocking wood]
- Yay!
[squealing with excitement]
[jaunty music]
- Hi Sam, how are you doing?
- Hi Drew, I'm good, how are you?
[jaunty music]
- I'm so excited to see your project.
[suspenseful music] [Sam gasping]
- [Sam] Oh my God! - [Drew] Oh!
- [Sam] Stop!
- How did you do that?
- [Drew] We kind of almost have a similar-ish arch detail.
Yours looks like it costs a lot.
Like, I would pay thousands of dollars for that.
- Yeah, yours too!
And you did like a burl veneer on yours?
- It's contact paper.
The fabrication of this whole piece was like, $80.
- No, this is like, in a catalog, like, ready for sale.
What's the structure below the drawers.
- It's actually just like a wood box that I made.
Like a quarter inch plywood that I cut the arch out of.
It was originally supposed to be like a flexible wood
on the underside, but it snapped.
So, I had to improvise quickly,
and I had extra pole wraps, so I just wrapped
the underside with the pole wrap.
- [Sam] Amazing.
I think the extra texture is really cool.
- What about your poles?
You probably turned those, didn't you?
- [Sam] I did.
Yeah, I wanted to do like, another sort of wavy,
wobbly element to go with the grain line
of the droopiness of the drawers.
- I'd buy those.
- I can make handles and then you can
buy them for your projects.
[laughing]
- Your new business.
And did you stain them different?
- [Sam] So, I wanted to do sort of like an ombré.
- [Drew] It looks so good. - [Sam] And then the like,
middle tone turned out to be sort of lighter than the top,
but it's, like a pop color, bottom drawer situation.
- Like, how did you do that to the drawers?
- So, I completely took the faces off,
and then made them out of red oak plywood.
And then I did edge banding on the sides,
so it looks like it's wood, and you can stain it.
- I think we both did a really good job.
I actually love both of our dressers.
I love that one's tall and one's short.
Like, there's different purposes for both.
It's not like, one could pick one or the other,
you need both.
- You do need both. - Right?
- You need both. - Yeah.
Drew, it was so nice meeting you,
and I loved seeing your piece.
- We have to do something in the future.
- Yeah, I want to get drinks or something.
- And then we'll build furniture right after.
- Yeah. [both laughing]
[jaunty music]