How To Change Drawer Pulls As Part Of A Complete Furniture Makeover

It’s easier than you think to change drawer pulls. Changing the drawer pulls or knobs as part of a furniture makeover is the last step in a total furniture transformation. 

I did it all on this nightstand from changing the drawer pulls, to paint, to decoupage. I share the whole makeover from beginning to end in this tutorial.

I was inspired by this pretty fabric I spotted at a local store a while back.  I loved the colors and the design of the fabric. The name of the fabric is  Tres Chic Black/ Pink and it’s by Waverly.

I thought about putting the fabric on the drawers or the top but decided at the last minute that it would work best on the sides. That was my vision anyway. 

This is the before of the nightstand. Cute shape but the nightstand had issues and those outdated drawer pulls had to go.

You can see the stained top has a lot of damage to it. That really isn’t a problem with a paint makeover because a little sanding with a power sander or sandpaper by hand will even out the roughness of the finish.

And man was the nightstand dirty. I sanded the loose finish from the top of the nightstand then grabbed the shop vac to get rid of the cobwebs and dust balls. Then I washed it from top to bottom with Simple Green.

The first order of business was to drill new holes for the drawer knobs and fill the old pull holes with putty. I wanted the nightstand to have a modern up to date look so I decided to change the hardware style.

A big wood knob is much more up to date than the batwing pulls. I used this handy dandy hardware template thingy to mark for the new knob.

The template has different sets of holes for different size drawer pulls and the screw holes are measured center-to-center.  The center-to-center of any drawer pull is the distance between the center of one screw hole to the center of the other. 

The template also has a hole in the center which helped me a lot. I lined up the template with the original pull holes and marked the place for my new knob using the center hole!

I used my power drill to make a new hole for the knob. The drill is one of my favorite power tools.

Then I filled the old holes with Elmer’s Wood Filler. I usually let the first application of filler dry then add another layer because the wood filler shrinks as it dries.

After the filler is set I sand it down so it’s flush with the wood. I sand it by hand because I have more control than using an electric sander.

Now for the secret of the paint. I primed the nightstand and I liked the look of the primer so much I just went with that.

I was going to paint the piece pink but thought that might be overkill with the pink girly fabric.

The primer is one of my favorite brands….Glidden. I always have the primer tinted at Home Depot to a gray color. Gray works great under any top coat. I like it much better than white primer.

Moving on to the decoupage part of the post. I cut the “Tres Chic” fabric to the size of the sides of the nightstand.

I laid the fabric face down on plastic sheeting and covered it liberally with Mod-Podge using a foam brush.

I turned the nightstand on it’s side so I would be working on horizontal surface and applied the Mod Podge coated fabric.

I rubbed the fabric from the center out with a soft cloth to remove all the bubbles….well…almost all. 

Before the fabric was completely dry I trimmed off the excess with a razor.

When the fabric was dry I brushed on two coats of the Mod-Podge as a sealer. It dries clear so no worries! 

Now for the “new” knobs. I found a couple of unfinished wood knobs in my stash and simply painted them with black satin spray paint. And that was it! 

The gray primer has a flat finish and I like it! What about you? Are you surprised that the nightstand looks totally different?

It’s my favorite thing to do….make a piece of furniture unrecognizable from it’s original look! 

Have you decoupaged anything? I like using paper to decoupage too. It works great if it’s not too thin, then it’s a bear. Voice of experience.

One time I decoupaged gift wrap on bar stool legs. You can see it here…Wrapped Decoupaged Legs.

That’s it for today. Thanks for being here and see you tomorrow, Kathy