Mini chest of drawers, DIY-style!

Transform this mini chest of drawers into a real eye-catcher

Objects made from untreated wood can be given a wonderfully unique design using our acrylic markers, so much so that they’ll blend in perfectly with your furnishings. They come in a choice of 26 colours, from pastels through to vibrant shades. In this idea, we’ve used a mini chest of drawers to show you how easy it is to conjure up a real eye-catcher for your home. The opaque paints are lightfast and won’t fade, meaning you’ll get long-lasting enjoyment from your stylish accessory. We’ve even got a template of a motif for you to print out.

Categories: How to paint with acrylics
Home decor
Products: Acrylic range
Materials: Wood
Difficulty: A bit more challenging
Downloads: Images (ZIP)

Step-by-step

Step 1

Print out both templates – they’re just the right size for the mini chest of 6 drawers. In our example, we’ve used the following acrylic markers: broad edding 5000 acrylic marker in traffic red, gentian blue and white plus the medium edding 5100 acrylic marker in white. There are plenty of other colours to choose from though, so pick your favourites! To start with, wipe the chest of drawers with a cloth to remove any dust.

Step 2

Place the template and the carbon paper on the front of the chest of drawers and fix in place using the adhesive strips. Use the pencil to transfer the pattern. Next, activate your markers as follows: shake the marker with the cap still on until you can clearly hear the mixing balls inside it. Next, carefully pump the marker up and down a few times until ink appears in the tip. Try the marker out on a piece of scrap paper. Remove the drawers and neatly colour in the areas that you’ve already sketched out.

Step 3

Now it’s time to use the acrylic marker in gentian blue. If you’ve made a mistake or have accidentally painted over another colour, first let the surface dry before going over it with the right shade. You’ll need the broad acrylic marker in white for the other two circles (see title image).

Step 4

Once you’ve finished decorating all the drawers and everything is completely dry, you can reinsert the drawers. To finish, draw fine vertical lines over several drawers using the white acrylic marker medium.