Give a plain chest of drawers an on-trend bamboo makeover

Follow Marcie K’s easy steps using half-dowels to create a chic faux-bamboo look

I love this faux-bamboo style. It’s so on-trend but everything in this design is pricey. However, it’s easier than you think to recreate the look by fixing half-dowels to the front of a plain chest of drawers.

Compared to some upcycling projects, it seems like the costs add up when you’re buying the dowels and other elements, but in terms of what you’re saving it’s still very budget. This cost approximately £80 to make, including the £20 I spent on the chest of drawers, but I recently saw a bamboo piece smaller than this with a price tag of £1,200, so it’s all relative! I came up trumps finding these drawers on Gumtree; they were originally flat-pack furniture but were worth getting just for the tapered legs!

Step 1

Measure the width of your drawers and calculate how many half-dowel lengths you will need (Image A). I bought 21mm ones from B&Q at 2,400mm length. Check the quality of each dowel before you buy them, to make sure none are damaged. As this was flat-pack furniture, the drawers were quite poorly put together, so I took them apart and glued the joints to ensure they were strong enough to take additional weight (Image B).

Step 2

Sand the whole piece, inside and out. Mask off the sides of the drawer edges to keep them free of paint (Image C), then prime the outside of your drawer carcass with a foam roller (Images D and E). I used grey Zinsser primer – this helps with darker paint colours. Prime all the drawer edges as well, to help the paint adhere.

Step 3

While the primer is drying, start cutting your half-dowels. Measure what you need to the nearest millimetre (Image F). I used a multitool to cut my dowels but there are many tools you can use, from a fine-tooth saw right up to a table saw. I laid the dowels on the drawers as I cut them, to get an idea of how well the cuts sat next to each other. Once you have cut enough dowels line them up on each drawer front, making sure they run parallel to each other.

Step 4

Using a quick-drying glue by No More Nails, start sticking your dowels in place (Image G). Press them down firmly and wipe off any excess, keeping them evenly spaced. When you do the next drawer, line them up against the recently glued ones so you can keep the dowels aligned. Allow the glue to set.

Step 5

When the glue is set completely hard, sand the edges of the dowels on an angle, to give them a neat professional look (Images H and I). Wipe down the drawers, then paint the whole piece in your chosen colour, starting from underneath. I used Valspar furniture paint together with a short-nap roller for a smooth finish, plus a brush to get into the grooves. It needed three coats – greens often do. Varnish if you need to, depending on your paint instructions.

Step 6

When your paint or varnish is dry, measure out where you would like to place your handles (Image J). I always like to do a pilot hole for screws as I feel it saves me time and hassle; it also means you are less likely to scratch your paintwork if the screw slips.