Repurpose a Dresser for Nursery: White with Pink Knobs Upcycle

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.

My husband humored me during the last few months of my pregnancy by doing some manly crafting.

For instance, I asked him to repurpose a dresser from the ’60s for our daughter’s impending arrival. It used to be his grandmother’s dresser, then his dresser as a child, and now it’s an updated dresser for our girls! And hey, the dresser upcycle took less than $25!

With a few tools borrowed from my dad, he managed to create the perfect matching dresser for our pink owl theme nursery!

Dresser Repurpose Quick Tutorial

We first started by taking off the awful handles from the front of the dresser.  My husband had to pry them off, which took a bit of muscle since they were glued one! The holes and imperfections from removing the handles he filled then with spackle.

We then sanded and scuffed up the dresser a little bit with steel wool. I let my husband and dad take over and spray paint the dresser and its drawers.

It only took them around 4 cans of paint. They did a couple of coats to make sure the wood color would not show through. We left the pieces outside in the shed to dry for a few days and air out the fumes before bringing it back into the house with pregnant momma!

I wanted to custom pick the color of the knobs (and there really aren’t that many options for pink knobs out there anyway!), so I went with unfinished knobs from Lowe’s. I picked a pink paint sample that was the perfect shade for the knobs. Once the knobs were screwed in, I was so happy with how things turned out!

The dresser is now complete with my homemade diaper changing pad cover.  I think it turned our super cute!  And much better than that old dresser at first!


If you’re interested in how the nursery turned our, see all the posts of her pink owl-themed nursery.

Edit: We repurposed this dresser one more time for my younger daughter…check out redo #2: mint, salmon, and gold nursery dresser makeover!  We didn’t have to paint the whole dresser luckily, so this dresser repurpose was a simple as replacing the knobs.