Decorating a chest of drawers with your own hands means creating a unique designer item from an ordinary piece of furniture. It will dilute the usual surroundings with its brightness and transform the overall interior of the room. Let's look at several ways to decorate with your own hands.
Restoration and painting of the cabinet
Dresser decoration
Decorating a chest of drawers
Sometimes it’s a pity to throw away a shabby old one, but quality furniture. In this case, it can always be transformed.
Restoration is a labor-intensive process that goes beyond the simple transformation of an interior item. But more often than not, you can’t do without it when working with old things. Before you begin restoring a chest of drawers, you should carefully inspect it for value. It is possible that it may turn out to be an item made tens or hundreds of years ago self made. To do this, first of all, you should pay attention to the fittings: handles, legs, screws. If they are not the same, there are differences in the notches, then, most likely, they were made by hand and not by an industrial method.
Cabinet decoration
Beautiful decor of a chest of drawers in the form of a designer
If the decision to restore is made, the following things will be required:
Updating a chest of drawers involves several steps.
Cleaning the surface must be done carefully so as not to damage any decorative parts. To begin with, wipe the surface with soapy water; a toothbrush will come in handy for cleaning small parts. Furniture fittings can be removed if necessary.
To combat plaque or stubborn dirt, it is better to use fine sandpaper, but the main thing here is not to overdo it and not damage the furniture. If planned complete replacement color, then the entire surface will have to be lightly sanded.
Restoration and painting of the cabinet
Decorating a chest of drawers with rulers
Decorating a chest of drawers
Once the chest of drawers is clean and dry, it needs to be repaired. You will need to inspect the product for scratches, damaged screws, and so on. The cracks are covered with putty, the fittings are replaced with new ones.
Most likely, you will have to paint, since it is unlikely that the old chest of drawers will match the modern one. color scheme interior You can repaint it a single color. You need to paint carefully, especially in the corners. Use required special paint for working with wood. If desired, you can varnish the chest of drawers.
Cabinet decoration
Beautiful chest of drawers decor
There are many ways to decorate an updated chest of drawers. You will certainly be able to choose the most suitable method.
The easiest way to make this decoration is on a white surface. Decoupage is a modification of a product using special napkins. They can be purchased at craft stores. In the bedroom you can use a floral print, and for the children's room - images of your favorite cartoon characters. The work includes several main stages:
Restoration and painting of the cabinet
Dresser decoration
Decorating a chest of drawers
Decoupage can be done not only with paper, but also with fabric. This option will be much more economical if you glue scraps at hand. More often, drawer fronts are decorated in this way, choosing colors to match the curtains or upholstered furniture. The handles must be removed from them before starting work. Next you need to perform the following steps.
Stylish in any modern interior The decor of the chest of drawers will look in the English style. An old piece of furniture from Ikea would work well for this design. Two evenings will be enough for you to work. For decoration you will need:
Cabinet decoration
Beautiful chest of drawers decor
The work consists of the following steps:
Restoration and painting of the cabinet
Dresser decoration
Decorating a chest of drawers
The design of an old chest of drawers will look quite stylish. Usually this method is chosen by lovers of creativity, Provence or country music. To work you need to prepare:
Before decorating begins, take out all the drawers, remove the dresser top and handles. Then all surfaces are sanded with sandpaper until smooth and wiped with a sponge soaked in water. After drying, apply the main coat of paint and allow the product to dry again. Now you need to make abrasions using sandpaper and rub them with a candle, as well as some areas of the main surface.
Cabinet decoration
Beautiful chest of drawers decor
After this, paint of a different shade is applied (darker or lighter - everyone chooses for themselves) and the waxed areas are wiped with a sponge. The paint will come off easily there. You can paint or decorate the chest of drawers using the decoupage technique, and then cover it with craquelure. This type varnish will be added to wooden surface small natural cracks.
Once the varnish has dried, the chest of drawers can be assembled and used for its intended purpose.
The voluminous decor of a chest of drawers does not require large financial expenditures, and the work will only bring pleasure. Moreover, using this technique you can transform cabinets, sideboards and other pieces of furniture. The design may require stencils; they can be easily made from thick cardboard.
Restoration and painting of the cabinet
Decorating a chest of drawers with pictures
Decorating a chest of drawers
For decoration you will need:
The work is simple, the main thing is to do everything carefully, after removing the handles and taking out the drawers. The stencils are attached to the surface, and a thick layer of putty is applied to them. Most likely, the applied layer will have to be smoothed out a little with a spatula before removing the cardboard. The three-dimensional pattern is left to dry.
Cabinet decoration
Beautiful chest of drawers decor
You can cover everything with one color. Or select a volumetric element. To do this you need to do the following:
This method is suitable for both an old chest of drawers and a new one.
Making a chest of drawers with your own hands turns out to be quite easy. Such a useful product will meet all your requirements and serve as a source of pride. We are ready to tell you in detail step by step about this process.
Standard furniture is not suitable for every home. Of course, you can make a product to order. But if you have at least a little creative ability, making a chest of drawers with your own hands will not be at all difficult for you.
Such a solution will have a significant number of advantages:
To make a chest of drawers with your own hands, you will need drawings.
First we need to think about what kind of chest of drawers we will make.
Most standard chests of drawers have dimensions of 0.8 meters high, 0.8 -1.2 meters wide and only 0.3 meters deep. If the product is much higher, it is recommended to fix it to the wall. Otherwise, loaded boxes may weigh it down and pull it down.
Dresser models may be equipped with legs or not.
As for the requirements for materials and structure: the board must be at least 1.6 centimeters, there must be a gap of at least one centimeter between the drawers and the walls.
After clarifying the answers to all these questions, we proceed to graphically display the future product. It can be done either manually on paper or using various programs, of which there are quite a lot now.
If you do not have drawing skills, simply choose a ready-made sketch that is easy to find on the Internet or use our options.
To make a wooden chest of drawers with your own hands, you need to decide what material and in what quantity we need.
High-quality models are usually made from natural wood. Cheaper samples will be made from chipboard. To give a more solid look on a modest budget, chipboard is used, but the top cover is made more massive and thicker.
You should not skimp on the quality of the material used. Low-quality chipboard can dry out in a short period of time. But it is quite suitable for making back wall designs.
If you plan to move the chest of drawers, choose reliable wheels. This will make it much easier to transport.
Now we list the necessary parts of the chest of drawers that will need to be prepared:
The set of tools that will be needed during the work process will be quite standard:
Based on the created drawings, patterns are drawn up in real size. They are laid out on the material and outlined. Carefully and as evenly as possible cut out the details of the chest of drawers.
Check all the details very accurately to get a quality product. Just a few millimeters and the material can be damaged or you can end up with a crooked product that will not distribute loads correctly and wobble. If you are not sure, it is better to check the parameters before making the cut.
The next step is the assembly process of the product. It is recommended to mark the fastening points on each part. The top lid of the chest of drawers is attached to the sides. It is advisable to use furniture corners, so your design will be more reliable.
Next we attach the back wall. It can be made from more thin material and secure with small nails.
We assemble the drawers and install the guide rails.
Reliable fastenings and high-quality fittings will make your creation a real work of art.
A little work and care and your chest of drawers is ready.
Its design is a creative process. There are many interesting techniques that will help you create a unique product.
The most interesting stage is the decor. Modern industry offers a huge amount of all kinds of materials. You can use stain and varnish to give the wood the appearance of fine wood.
A variety of colors will allow you to create a texture similar to fabric, wood, bronze, ivory or give the effect of antiquity.
The decoupage technique is very interesting. With its help, you can choose almost any pattern you like. Everything is limited only by your imagination and desire.
If you have an old chest of drawers, you can revive it and give it a unique look. The quality of some pieces of furniture is so high that it can compete with modern pieces.
Restoring a chest of drawers with your own hands is quite simple. Prepare:
Your most important task is to carefully disconnect the fittings. If the old hardware parts are damaged, it is better to replace the entire set at once.
Wipe the chest of drawers with soapy water. We clean all cracks and holes from any remaining dirt. We clean handles and locks with abrasive until they shine. If there are rusty nails and bolts, they should be replaced. Check that there is no damage to the wood.
Now let's work on the texture. The old coating should be carefully cleaned and the surface treated with sandpaper. Treat all chips and uneven areas with wood plaster.
As for wood processing methods, it’s even difficult to count them: from varnishing to aging and using decoupage techniques.
Your imagination and a little work - and now you have an ultra-fashionable product or, on the contrary, a rare vintage piece. And the quality of the material of the product will allow it to survive until your grandchildren.
You can try your strengths and capabilities first on more simple material. For example, make your own chest of drawers out of cardboard for jewelry.
Such material will have a number of “advantages”:
The “disadvantages” include:
To make a chest of drawers from cardboard you will need:
The work process itself can be divided into the following stages:
If you value functionality in every corner, pay attention to the new product for 2018 - a chest of drawers with an ironing board.
Making such a model is quite simple. You can use the finished top of the ironing board, freeing it from the legs.
Let's prepare 4 slats. The side walls can be made of chipboard or even cardboard. We attach the walls on the sides to the legs.
We make the back wall and the bottom. We put marks on the places where the boxes will be located.
The walls can be treated with paint, using the decoupage technique, or even covered with fabric. We attach our board on top.
You can make a folding edge of the ironing board that will fold when necessary.
One of the interesting options for chests of drawers made of wood is a mini chest of drawers. Such a product can accommodate a lot of useful things and takes up very little space.
Watch the master class on how to make it:
As you can see, making a chest of drawers yourself is not at all difficult. All it takes is a little imagination and desire. A unique product will fill your home with warmth and help with its functionality.
The house cannot do without cabinets that can accommodate many things in their space. As the most convenient option a piece of furniture for everything (from linen to small trinkets that need to be hidden) is a chest of drawers. You can purchase it by choosing the design option that matches the interior, but making a chest of drawers with your own hands will be much more profitable. Among other things, this piece of furniture can be completely unique design and color.
The chest of drawers is used to store linen and serves as an excellent addition to the interior of the room.
Figure 1. Side of the chest of drawers.
When making oversized pieces of furniture, as a rule, it is very difficult to find material and fittings for them. In order to make a chest of drawers with your own hands, the drawing of which was presented above, you will need 15- and 10-mm plywood. It is preferable to purchase europlywood, as it looks more presentable and is better processed in the factory. The back wall and bottom of the drawers can be made on the basis of 3.2 mm hardboard.
To process the material, you should prepare a manual milling cutter, which can be replaced with a desktop model. In the first option, you will need end mills, and in the second, disk mills.
In order to make a chest of drawers, it will be necessary to prepare the following parts in the amount of 2 pieces. each of 15 mm plywood (hereinafter all dimensions are indicated in mm):
The following parts need to be prepared from 10 mm plywood:
Figure 2. Side of the drawer.
From hardboard you need to cut blanks with the following dimensions:
Before making the chest of drawers, you can cut it yourself or use the services of a professional sawyer. The design requires adherence to a clear geometry of the elements, which must have right angles and dimensions accurate to 1/10 mm.
The top, bottom and shelves should not be milled. The remaining parts must be milled, guided by Fig. 1 (sidewall of the structure), fig. 2 (side of the drawer) and fig. 3 (front side of the front wall of the box, front and back walls of the box), where surface A needs to be processed with a 15 mm cutter, the outer cut should have a depth of 7.5 mm. In the future, it should be taken into account that the outermost sample provides an L-shaped end. For other surfaces you need to use the following cutters:
Figure 3. Front side of the drawer, front and back walls of the drawer.
The elements must be processed with sandpaper, getting rid of protruding chips and other errors. In the pictures you can see how to arrange holes in the front side of the mounted drawer for a hidden handle, which will be needed for a case that does not involve the installation of external fittings.
Assembling a chest of drawers involves inserting elements into grooves and strengthening them with glue. Afterwards, the structure should be left to dry the composition. The sides of a piece of furniture must be fixed to the top and bottom lids using self-tapping screws with dimensions equal to 3.5x30 mm, however, in the case of drawers, this technique cannot be used.
The sides of the chest of drawers should be additionally screwed to the top and bottom lids using self-tapping screws. The assembly process must be accompanied by checking the geometry of the boxes. If necessary, you can use corner clamps, strengthening the right angle until the glue hardens.
The elements must be carefully driven into the grooves, immediately getting rid of excess glue that has come out using a dry rag; after it hardens, it will be extremely difficult to get rid of the composition. The design is calculated precisely and has no tolerances, which is why it is necessary to ensure that there are no protruding elements anywhere. After gluing the front cover of the drawer, you need to let the glue dry. Then all joints can be processed by grinding again. Now the surface of the chest of drawers can be refined by covering it with varnish or paint. You can use the decoupage or craquelure method for decoration.
The changing chest can be made from laminated 16-mm chipboard, the ends of which will be refined with melamine edges.
The height of the chest of drawers will be 1076, width – 800 and depth – 500. The sides of the folding board should have the following dimensions: 1076x500, 2 of them will be needed.
Before starting work you need to prepare:
Hardboard elements:
For the chest of drawers, use 450 mm full rollout slides. Before assembly, it is necessary to drill holes in the parts for installing confirmations. The hole will need to be 76mm from the top and leading edge of the side piece. The same hole should be drilled on the sides of the folding board.
The guides must be mounted at a distance of 20 mm from the front edge of the sidewall.
Assembly should begin by attaching the partition to the top shelf using corners with 4x16 self-tapping screws, only then should the bottom shelf be installed, tightening it with confirmations. The rear wall of the structure can be installed using nails, but it is important to take into account compliance right angle boxes The next step is to install the so-called hooves on the sidewalls.
A washer should be installed between the sidewalls of the folding element and the sides of the frame, which will have a thickness of 1 mm. The washers need to be secured to the sidewalls in advance.
The tie sleeve must be hammered from the inside and secured with a screw from the outside. You should not apply excessive force - you need to apply superglue under the screw head, this will prevent unscrewing.
All drawers are assembled according to the same pattern. The bottom of the drawers should be screwed onto 4x16 self-tapping screws.
Next, you need to drill holes in the fronts of the drawers for handles. Then the facade must be applied to be pressed through the holes with 4x30 mm self-tapping screws. Now you need to remove the box, tighten the screws from the inside, and then unscrew the outside ones. The handle can be installed on extended screws through the front wall of the drawer.
Such a chest of drawers will be useful not only at the stage immediately after the birth of the baby, but also in the future, since the design of this piece of furniture is universal and will look harmonious even in a classic, not a children's bedroom.
A chest of drawers is a very convenient and functional piece of furniture. Its main advantage is that it allows you to store many different things without taking up much space. Flaw - high price factory-made products. Not every person has the opportunity to allocate money to purchase such furniture. But everyone can figure out how to do it. This piece of furniture may have a different shape and size, but the manufacturing technology remains the same in any case.
Making a chest of drawers with your own hands begins with its design. Before making calculations, determining the appropriate size of the countertop, assembling drawers, etc., you need to choose a place to install the chest of drawers. Take a careful look around your room. Study the structure of the baseboards, see if there are switches, sockets, etc. on the wall, which must be taken into account when choosing the size of the chest of drawers. It is important that it does not cover anything and that nothing interferes with its use.
Figure 1. Chest of drawers.
Next you need to choose the size of the chest of drawers. The most comfortable chest of drawers is considered to be one with a width of 80-130 cm and a height of 80-85 cm. The best chest of drawers is one that you would be comfortable using. If you can't figure out what your chest of drawers should look like, visit your local furniture store. Surely you will like something, and in the future you will be able to focus on the model you like.
Most often, home craftsmen make chests of drawers from wood. This is a relatively cheap and easy to process material. If you have never made furniture with your own hands before, opt for a wooden chest of drawers.
Next, you will need to create a project for your homemade chest of drawers. For this you can use special computer programs or draw it on paper. The main task at this stage comes down to determining what parts the chest of drawers will consist of. Next you will need to create a drawing. You can take the diagram in Fig. as a basis. 1.
A drawing is a must. If you can still do without a project, then you won’t be able to work without a drawing.
The drawing must show at least a side or top and front view.
It will be better if you can depict it in cross-section. Be sure to include the dimensions of each part. This will allow you to see how all the parts will fit, where indentations are needed, etc. When drawing up a drawing, it is recommended to focus on the following dimensions:
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Figure 2. Sidewall markings.
This page presents a small selection of drawings with dimensions that can be used for things.
To free up as much space as possible in the room, make it spacious and tidy, things in the apartment should always be in their place. At the same time, I want to have a quick and easy access to these things.
You can use the mouse wheel to zoom in or out of an object. The "ESC" key disables the "Segment" tool.
The structure of the material is always located along the length of the part.
We also immediately write down what fasteners and accessories we will need.
To do this, you need to know the places where parts and accessories are attached (what, at what distance and from where to attach). If you are near the computer, then you can immediately look at the distances on the drawing using the same “Segment” tool in the Compass program.
A chest of drawers in the home is a practical and multifunctional piece of furniture. Currently, thanks to the availability of a variety of materials on sale, pieces of furniture can not only be purchased ready-made, but also made independently. This will significantly save money, because hand-made furniture will cost several times less than purchased in a store. And also in this way you can design products that fully correspond to your preferences and general interior rooms.
A chest of drawers is a piece of furniture that can be placed in any room of the home. The predecessor of the chest of drawers was an ordinary chest, but it had some inconvenience to use. This caused the transformation of the chest, the formation of some new elements in it, as a result of which such a piece of furniture as a chest of drawers appeared. It was a small cabinet with two doors and drawers. Over time, the design improved and chests of drawers with a mirror or chests of drawers began to appear. Today it is a versatile, roomy piece of furniture used to store a wide variety of items.
It looks organically in the setting of a living room, a nursery, a bedroom or a hallway. At the same time, the chest of drawers is a functional place for storing things, where you can conveniently place perfumes, books, shoe care products, cosmetics, clothes and other necessary things. This design will ensure order wherever you put it.
The materials for making chests of drawers are varied:
For example, if, according to the drawing, the size of the front of the future chest of drawers is 1100 mm x 167 mm, a gap of 3 mm in height should be left. In addition, you need to remember that the edge will add thickness.
After drawing up a diagram for assembling the chest of drawers and a list of all the necessary elements, we prepare the parts in accordance with this. You can ask for help from a company that specializes in cutting chipboard and making MDF facades. Such services are offered by all companies that sell particle boards.
If you have the skills to work with a circular saw, you can make the parts yourself. To do this, in addition to the saw, you will also need a special disk, which is necessary for cutting the edges of the slabs of two planes.
Once you have all the parts, you can begin assembling them into the finished product.
To work you need to prepare:
The process of assembling the chest of drawers occurs in the following sequence:
As a rule, installing drawers is a more labor-intensive process than assembling the body. The box consists of the following elements:
Since the design contains several such components at once, before assembling the chest of drawers, it is important not to get confused in the constituent elements and number them. Then do the following:
The production of such a chest of drawers begins with the construction of the frame. Its size is determined by the number of suitcases that are supposed to be used. The material for the frame can be plastic, boards, metal, chipboard or plywood. Finishing can be done using varnish or paint, the color scheme of which matches the interior of the room. The design features of such a chest of drawers are as follows:
In the bedroom, a chest of drawers is usually used to store clothes and bedding. Therefore, it is advisable to prepare a large chest of drawers for this room. For children's rooms, designs with changing tables are used. You can also choose a chest of drawers with various fairy-tale scenes for your child’s room. This piece of furniture will be useful in kitchen area or in the dining room. It is quite convenient to store dishes in it, and also use it as a buffet.
In the bathroom, this piece of furniture is well suited for storing bath accessories. And if you choose it in accordance with the color scheme of the plumbing, this will help create exquisite interior. However, you need to take into account the fact that for this room you should make a chest of drawers from moisture-resistant materials, for example, MDF or colored plastic. In a chest of drawers you can store not only clothes, bedding or dishes, but also jewelry. A small chest of drawers with a mirror is suitable for this purpose.
The chest of drawers is a spacious, practical and versatile piece of furniture. It will find its application in any room. Simple design consisting of available materials, allows you to assemble it yourself. The assembly process involves several stages. However, before assembling the chest of drawers, you must read the instructions in order to design a functional and aesthetic piece of furniture.
Instructions on how to assemble the chest of drawers can be seen in the video below:
It would seem - what is so difficult about assembling ordinary cabinet furniture? But for an inexperienced person, this process can sometimes seem like a super task. Especially, as often happens, if there are no assembly instructions.
Let's try, using an ordinary chest of drawers as an example, to talk about the basic rules for assembling furniture.
So, they brought you packed boxes. There is no particular point in checking the presence of all the components (you won’t count all the screws and cogs), the only thing is that if there are a lot of boxes, then you need to compare their number with the number on the invoice.
Does it match?
So everything is fine. In our case, there are only two boxes. Let's unpack and first find the instructions.
If it is not there, we are looking for at least a picture of the appearance of our piece of furniture. It can be pasted on the outside of the box. If this is not the case, then we can only rely on our own heads and these recommendations, or take a standard diagram as a guide:
The step-by-step video at the end of the article will also be useful.
First, let's look at the option with instructions. Depending on the responsibility of the furniture manufacturer, the instructions can be either detailed or brief (without part designations), but in both cases it contains an image of the appearance of the product.
Assembly must begin from the very beginning large design, in the case of a wall, it will be a cabinet with shelves for books.
Let me remind you, we have a chest of drawers :)
We look for the side walls of the chest of drawers (cabinet) among all the parts. The instructions contain their size, so we take a tape measure and measure the length and width (believe me, this will be much faster than trying on every detail and looking for the right one).
If there are no instructions, we look for parts of the same size and compare the holes on the inside. They should be located symmetrically (except for the holes for the hinges).
So, the side parts have been found, we are looking for the transverse elements.
Because external dimensions we know (width and length are discussed before purchase) we are looking for shelves and covers of suitable width in accordance with the picture, paying attention to the coincidence of the holes in the sides of the cabinet and the ends of the found horizontal elements.
So, all parts of one structure (cabinet) have been found, let's start assembling.
If you have drawers, the first thing you need to do is screw the guides to the inner surface of the chest of drawers (cabinet).
They come in different designs, but are similar in one thing - before installation they need to be divided into two parts (one part is screwed to the cabinet, the second to the drawer). The mounting points for the guides are already marked on the inner side surface of the cabinet.
I advise you to deepen them a little with an awl, this will make it easier to tighten the screws. The holes in the guides for fastening with screws are elliptical in shape; this is necessary for adjusting the position of the drawers. The structure is secured with two screws.
When all the guides are screwed in, you can proceed directly to the assembly itself (work is carried out with a horizontally located product).
To fasten the elements of a chest of drawers (cabinet), various fastening elements are used, such as screws, confirmations, dowels and, sometimes, minifixes consisting of a pin and an eccentric.
Confirmat (“Euroscrew”, “Eurek”, “screw tie”, “Euroscrew” is a single-element tie for connecting parts from wood materials(see pic)
The shelves, which act as stiffening elements, are fastened using confirmations and dowels, all the others are installed in already finished design on shelf supports.
So, we look for holes for dowels on the side elements; they are not through.
Pour PVA glue there, insert a dowel and drive it tightly with a hammer (be careful, if you overdo it, you can damage the surface of the sidewall).
We perform this operation with all dowel connections on both side elements.
This requires some skill. To begin with, you can place stops under the falling elements.
When connecting, you can use a rubber hammer, tapping it at the places where the dowels are attached.
When all the parts have “sat down” in their place, you can screw in the confirmations without screwing them in completely.
Now it's time for the top cover. It is also attached using dowels, and minifixes are added for greater reliability. A pin is screwed into the cover itself, and an eccentric is inserted into the corresponding hole in the sidewall.
Now you need to install the cover in its place and turn the eccentric so that it tightens the pin, thereby pressing the cover to the structure.
We wrap the confirmations all the way.
Now you need to nail the back wall made of fiberboard. Before this, you need to check the equality of the diagonals by comparing them using a simple string or tape measure.
Well, the main work is finished, all that remains is to assemble the boxes.
The design of my drawers also contains minifixes, but, most often, the drawers are assembled using dowels and confirmations. The fasteners are already familiar, so we won’t dwell on them in detail.
When the drawers are assembled, you need to attach the second part of the guides to them (be careful not to attach them backwards). There are also marks for fastenings on the surface of the drawer sides. All operations are similar.
We install the boxes in place.
Well, the final stage - we remove the film (if any) from all facades, close the confirmation caps with plugs, and install handles.
Yes, as a rule, the holes for attaching handles are not always drilled to the end, so it is advisable to drill these holes before assembling the drawers.
We install our chest of drawers (cabinet) in the place intended for it and enjoy the work done.
The chest of drawers is not a defining, but significant element of the interior. In the most different styles its design, from bourgeois haberdashery rococo and impressively solid classics to fusion and high-tech, it is the chest of drawers that completes the composition and gives the appearance of the room completeness, see fig. In some ways, a chest of drawers is to furniture what dots an i and dashes a t.
Making a chest of drawers with your own hands is both easier and more difficult than making a wardrobe. It’s simpler because there are only drawers in the chest of drawers; perhaps a shelf. It is more difficult because its contents are contained in a less rigid box-case without vertical partitions and tightly fixed shelves, but it is used more intensively and is subjected to greater operating loads than in a cabinet. Therefore, the design of a chest of drawers made from traditional materials differs significantly from that of a cabinet.
Firstly, the chest of drawers made of wood is installed not on a base, but on the so-called. lower apron - a rigid supporting frame on legs, low or high. Secondly, each drawer rests on its own apron, tightly fastened to the sides of the case, this gives the product the necessary rigidity.
For example in Fig. Drawings of a classic wooden chest of drawers “for eternity” are provided. When using modern metal guides, 1 drawer apron is sufficient for 350-450 mm of the body height, i.e. box aprons turn into stiffening belts installed through 2-3 rows of boxes. In this case, the drawer aprons marked in red can be omitted, but 2 of them will still remain.
The classic chest of drawers has given rise to several varieties, from left to right in Fig. This is, firstly, a bureau that will be useful not only to a bureaucrat who enthusiastically indulges in his vice even with his family. A bureau, unlike a secretary, does not give the psychological effect of something hanging over your head, so it is more convenient to do creative and delicate painstaking work with it: handicrafts, soldering, tinkering with precision mechanics. Although, of course, you can place things you need for your business on the shelves of the secretary, so the choice in this case depends on taste and character traits.
A diagram of the bureau structure is shown in Fig. The mechanism for folding the lid and turning it into a tabletop, as we see, is simple and quite accessible for self-production. The missing dimensions can be calculated based on the available free space using the instructions below.
A chest of drawers with a chest is convenient because it does not take up unnecessary usable area and you don’t need to bend over to him. And if the lid of the chest is flat, then the functionality of the chest of drawers is preserved. Structurally, a chest of drawers is no more complicated than a regular one: the top shelf of the chest of drawers also serves as the bottom of the chest.
A file cabinet differs from a linen chest of drawers in the presence of many small drawers; We will consider the features of their design below. Again, it will be useful, not only for litigators for dossiers or for bookworms as a repository for a personal library catalog. For women, especially those with daughters, underwear and little things dear to the heart and this may not be enough. A chest of drawers would also be suitable for a craftsman working with precision mechanics or a radio amateur.
Finally, the trend of our days is a wooden chest of drawers with a fireplace. Modern fireplace inserts have reached a high degree of fire safety and there are models that are quite suitable for embedding in wooden furniture, as long as there is a separate ventilation system in the house. smoke channel. The aesthetic effect of a chest of drawers with a fireplace can not be described, and so everything is visible.
A separate type of chest of drawers is designed for swaddling babies. The changing chest is made from environmentally friendly and non-allergenic materials: solid deciduous wood (birch is the most reliably tested for harmlessness) or zero (highest, extra) grade chipboard with emission class of phenol-containing compounds E0. The hinged lid turns it into a changing table; its mechanism is made as simple and reliable as possible: mothers with babies have no time to think about where to press, hook and pull what. The lid of the chest of drawers and the table are equipped with sides so that the baby does not fall and diapers, vests, and diapers do not get caught on anything. The structure, assembly procedure and specification of parts of the popular changing chest type 600/4 are shown in Fig. The main material is grade 0 chipboard, 16 mm thick.
A chest of drawers is not necessarily floor furniture; it can be a tabletop, for decorations and small items. In this case, it makes sense, without installing woodwork in the house, to make it out of cardboard. Cardboard technologies are not applicable to a large chest of drawers, as well as to any furniture with movable modules, because... cardboard strengthened in any way still does not withstand wear from friction. But in small chests of drawers, the ratio of the supporting area of the loaded drawer to its weight turns out to be many times greater, and the cardboard already holds when they crawl on it. And if it gets worn out, it doesn’t matter: the product is practically free and can be easily repeated. How to make an elegant table chest of drawers for jewelry yourself, see.
A mini chest of drawers does not have to have vertical drawer fronts. In many cases, it is more convenient for them to open up, as there is less chance that an earring, needle or button will immediately fall out and get lost. Therefore, the functions of a tabletop chest of drawers are often entrusted to a folding box, see fig.:
But what if the chest of drawers for household items is placed in a pantry or other utility room? There, beauty is not required from it, only simplicity, cheapness, capacity and more or less decent durability. Then you can assemble a chest of drawers from boxes, as, for example, shown in the video:
If required quantity There are no empty boxes, but there is unnecessary packaging cardboard, then the boxes are made from it according to any of the patterns of container boxes, see fig. For a chest of drawers, pos. (b), (c) and (e): a hinged lid with a side will hold spilled small items and make it more convenient to sort through them.
At first glance it seems that the cardboard chest of drawers is a quick fix"will go into the nursery, but that's not the case. Show me a child who always listens, understands and follows the instructions and admonitions of adults! For normal development, children absolutely need to explore their surroundings, and the simplest and quick way research - break it down. Paradoxically, without this, a child will never know the value of things and will not learn to handle them, no matter how obedient and quiet he may be.
A chest of drawers in a children's room should be especially durable and reliable, like any children's furniture. A changing chest of drawers will work as a work and utility corner in a child's room when the child stands on his feet and starts doing something with his hands. But what about his own needs, small but necessary?
A children's chest of drawers for small items can be made of plywood. Children are pragmatists, they have yet to study the subtleties of aesthetics, whom nature has endowed with taste. Therefore, there is no need to get too fancy with the decor: paint the blanks in 2 colors, and that’s good, on the left in Fig. Just don’t stain it, it’s better to use tinted acrylic varnish on water based, it is safe, even if they chew on it.
A chest of drawers for toys already requires sufficient capacity: your favorite bear, elephant or dog Pep can be as tall as the owner. And it is desirable that the chest of drawers, as if by itself, accustoms children not to throw toys around; this is where neatness and commitment begin. Good decision in this sense, a chest of drawers for toys in the form of a ladder to a loft bed. Take a closer look at children: do they trample on toys, even if they are designated as villains in their world? And later, the ladder chest of drawers can serve as a wall cabinet if shelves are attached to the steps.
Solid wood for furniture is not a cheap material. Rally furniture panels You can make it from boards yourself, but you need a production area outside of residential premises and you need to make fixtures. And besides, preparing construction lumber for assembly into furniture panels requires a lot of time.
It's tempting to replace solid MDF or laminate flooring, but, alas, the very structure of these materials does not allow furniture joints the parts made from them are reliable. They will only be used on drawer fronts, see below.
Drywall is absolutely not suitable for a chest of drawers: it is not a structural material, and the voids of the frame will take up so much space that there will be nowhere to put things. OSB is not suitable for furniture in terms of phenol expiration and layer strength. So, all that remains is plywood and laminated chipboard (chipboard).
Plywood is a completely suitable material for furniture. A chest of drawers made of plywood, after tinting with stain, painting or decoupling, can decorate any interior, see fig. If blanks made from ordinary construction plywood were thoroughly impregnated on both sides with a water-polymer emulsion, then in a heated room a plywood chest of drawers is practically eternal.
However, plywood is prone to delamination. Therefore, in plywood furniture, constantly loaded joints at the edge (at the end) should be avoided in every possible way. Dowels, fugues and dowels disappear altogether, and the metal end fasteners should only keep the assembly from falling apart; must bear operational loads construction material.
An example of the design of a chest of drawers made of plywood that meets the specified requirements is shown in Fig. The plywood thickness was chosen to be 18 mm so that, if necessary/possible, solid oak, beech or walnut could be partially used. The design of the lower apron is the same as that of a classic wooden chest of drawers, only its boards are also cut from plywood, and the corner bars are knocked together from several strips of it. Thanks to the higher elasticity and rigidity of plywood, it became possible to do without box aprons.
Chipboard material is even more durable and rigid than plywood, so the design of a chest of drawers made from it is greatly simplified: what the frame of a chest of drawers made of chipboard looks like is shown in Fig. on right. If the product is to be painted with a primer, then you can use not laminated, but much cheaper sanded chipboard. But in any case, its phenol class should be E0 for children's furniture and not higher than E1 (first grade) for adult furniture. For furniture in utility and industrial premises, classes E2 with natural ventilation and E3 with supply and exhaust are acceptable.
Note: rear wall of the frame in Fig. from fiberboard with a thickness of 4 mm. How it is installed is shown in the inset.
The above examples of chest of drawers designs are almost all with dimensions. But, if you want to repeat any of them or any other, you will most likely need to adjust the dimensions of the product to your room, because The chest of drawers is designed according to the residual principle as a piece of furniture that is not of primary importance. In a chest of drawers, in turn, most of the useful volume falls on the drawers, which is why the chest of drawers is designed step by step in the following order:
Designing drawers begins with choosing the type of facades: internal, on the left in the figure, or external, on the right in the same place. Internal ones are more elegant, but require greater precision in operation, because... a technical gap of 3 mm + 2 mm on the edge, if the chest of drawers is made of chipboard, must be provided along the contour of the facade, and its unequal size is immediately noticeable. If the drawer is on homemade wooden guides, and the protrusion of its facade is a stopper when sliding in, then in any case it is better to make external facades, because the internal ones in this design come off quite quickly from below.
Special attention should be paid to boxes of non-standard proportions. For example, small long and narrow ones in a file cabinet. If they are placed on modern full offset guides, then up to a third or even half of the useful volume will be wasted in the technical clearances for them. Therefore, the guides for file cabinet drawers will have to be made the old fashioned way, pos. And in Fig. below. The sacrifice by full extension in this case is not fatal, because The boxes are small and light.
Note: There are modifications of the full extension guides described below for filing cabinets, but they cost 3-12 times more than their counterparts for large heavy boxes. Peculiarities of pricing in the consumer society…
If the drawers, on the contrary, are large and wide, covering the entire front of the chest of drawers, then the plywood bottom will not stay in the groove even when reinforced from below with cranial blocks. Making a solid bottom from a structural board is expensive and the box itself will come out heavy. It is necessary to make a support frame under the bottom, pos. B. Its boards are fastened to the sides of the box from the outside with confirmations, and the cranial bars between them are fastened with nails.
All modern guides for furniture drawers are technically and ergonomically full-extension suspensions, because At maximum extension, no more than 5-7 cm of the drawer remains in the case; everything inside is visible and there is no need to fumble for anything. But in trade practice, it is customary to call full-extension guides those on which the box extends completely beyond the clearance so that its rear drawer ends up outside. For the user, this can only matter if during operation the box sometimes needs to be removed from the suspension. The guides are also divided into bottom (supporting the box from below), side and top, ball, roller and sliding. Additionally - for conventional overhead guides and metaboxes, in which the side drawer drawer drawers are included in the delivery set and work as part of the mechanism.
Note: It is also of some importance whether the drawer hanger has a closer - a device that pushes it all the way with a slight push into the façade.
The default guide specifications indicate the permissible dynamic load for them. To get the weight that a fully extended drawer can support, it is divided by 3, because dynamic load takes into account overloads in the mechanism due to the inertia of a moving loaded box. For example, if somewhere on the sheet there is a “25 kg” icon, then this box with its contents should weigh no more than 8 kg.
Note: And also, when purchasing guides, check that the halves of the pair are marked R (right) and L (left). There are known cases when unscrupulous traders sold identical halves of broken sets, and then “excused it”, they say, there is no such thing in the list of warranty cases.
Roller guides, see fig. the cheapest, 50-200 rubles. for a couple. The lateral technical clearance is small, 26 mm in total per drawer, but the vertical gap between drawers needs from 19 mm (16 mm according to the suspension specifications and a total of 3 mm). The weight when fully removed (“in commercial terms” is incomplete, about 5 cm of the box remains inside) is up to 8 kg. They walk with a rumble, the closer is gravitational and therefore works rather roughly. With careful use, they last 7-10 years, and then the plastic rollers need to be replaced, all of them at once. Marking the drill bit for the mount is very simple, on the right in Fig. Exactly there you only need to maintain the lower dimension of 30 mm, and the upper ones can be larger depending on the height of the drawers.
Kulkov ball guides or simply balls, see Fig., are almost eternal, because rolling steel kinematics. They cost 2-3 times more than rollers. They run exceptionally smoothly and quietly, but the base model does not have a door closer. There are modifications with the ability to connect it, either included or optional. If you take “bags” not for finishing, ask whether they are designed for it or not; the former will be more expensive.
There are also complaints about the difficulty of installing the “bags,” but in fact it turns out that these craftsmen tried to install them together with the box. Kulkov guides are mounted separately, and then the box is inserted into the body part. This, however, still requires increased precision of marking and drilling. A general technical clearance of 25 mm per box is required only on the side. The bags hold a weight of 7 to 20 kg, depending on the model; You can first determine the height of the guides: 17, 27, 35 or 45 mm.
Metaboxes, see figure, gave the name to the entire class of drawer hangers with complete side drawers. “Real” metaboxes are roller guides with an upper suspension, which is why the box moves quietly and does not warp. There is a closer and it is very smooth. Complete metabox drawers are available in heights from 85 to 285 mm, so for deep drawers you have to buy additional (expensive) rails, which still do not protect the small contents from falling out, which is why it can get stuck, and when you try to pull out the drawer, both it and the stuck object will break. Metaboxes with drawers of 175 mm cost approximately the same as Kulkov guides, and in all other respects they are equivalent to simple rollers, including service life, but are not repairable. To calculate drilling for installation, a special program (DYNALOG or others) is required, because some manufacturers simply do not provide her card.
Tandem guides cost 10-15 times more than simple rollers, but are very reliable and durable. The weight of the box when fully extended is from 20 kg, there are models for 50. There are modifications with complete drawers, they are called metal boxes, pos. 1 in Fig. Conventional tandems are truly full offset, pos. 2, and the box can be removed as needed without tools. In addition to the closer, the mechanism includes the Tip-On system, pos. 3: the retracted drawer itself moves out a little with a slight push into the front. Tandems take up quite a lot of useful furniture space, because... the lower technical clearance is large, pos. 4, and the area of the bottom of the box is greater than that of its sides. In a chest of drawers with wide and deep drawers, this is very noticeable.
The easiest way to accurately calculate the dimensions of the chest of drawers is in special furniture programs PRO100 or Basis-Furniture Maker. For those who are used to using general design AutoCad or Compass3D, you need to set tolerances and fits in the software options. The same thing will be needed if you design a chest of drawers with a pencil on paper. For a chest of drawers, by the way, this may be faster than setting up the software.
Tolerances in width and vertical are specified by technical clearances in the specifications of the selected guides, but you will have to calculate them yourself in depth:
This article did not discuss the issues of finishing and decorating a chest of drawers, excluding the video about a mini chest of drawers; This is a separate big topic. However, a chest of drawers, as an aesthetic piece of furniture that completes the interior, requires particularly careful decoration. Therefore, the design of the future product needs to be worked out already at the stage of choosing a location for it.
A chest of drawers is one of those irreplaceable pieces of furniture that easily find its place in the interior of a living room, hallway, living room and even office. More convenient system storage than in drawers– it’s probably impossible to come up with. That is why the question of how to make a chest of drawers with your own hands interests many craftsmen. It's not even a matter of wanting to save money. And in the need to realize exactly that constructive solution, overall dimensions and design, which are determined by free space And appearance the rest of the furniture.
The design of furniture should be practical and durable. Manufacturers offer a variety of retractable systems that can be used to equip drawers. If experience independent design and assembling cabinet furniture you don’t have much, I recommend focusing on the following materials and components:
The design of the chest of drawers is extremely simple. Represents the body the following type:
The detailing for a do-it-yourself chest of drawers with dimensions 900x800x400 will look like this: 
In order to make a chest of drawers with your own hands, a diagram and drawings of drilling (arrangement of fasteners) by detail will also be needed. The general scheme will look almost the same, regardless of the overall dimensions of the product itself. If you decide to mount the furniture to the wall, the back bar for fastening the table top will simply turn perpendicularly.
In terms of details, the markings for drilling will look like this.
It is better to take the markings for the guides (roller or ball) from the instructions, which will be included inside the package. Or on suppliers' websites furniture fittings. For example, an MDM kit.
Markings for fastening roller guides:
Markings for fastening ball guides:
Roller guides are attached under the bottom of the drawers, ball guides are attached along the center of the width of the drawer box. In general, on accurate calculations experienced assemblers rarely bother. Usually they make things simpler:
If the facades are voluminous, and there is only one handle in the center of the drawer or asymmetrically, it is better to tighten the facade from the inside using self-tapping screws, 4x30. With milled facades, be careful that the screw does not get into the thin part and come out, damaging the top decorative layer.
The example shown is a basic one for a four-drawer chest of drawers. Based on the general diagram and drawing, you can independently recalculate the model to any other dimensions: make the chest of drawers narrower or wider, higher or lower, deeper or, conversely, smaller.
