Hi Everybody!
After popular demand today I am back to show you how I got those perfectly striped drawers on my Deux of French Dresser Makeovers. While it did take some extra time to add this hidden detail to my dressers, it really gave them the extra pop they needed. Plus since it’s paint and not wallpaper or wrapping paper, these beautiful stripes will hold up for a long glorious time.
The process of adding stripes to the side of these drawers is actually a very simple process. There are two key steps to getting perfectly striped drawers quickly and easily. To find out what they are you’ll have to keep reading! To see how I transformed these dressers click here.
Before I can talk about the two key steps, I had to do some pesky prep work. For this project I needed to get a good solid base coat of paint on my drawers. This base color should be one of your two stripe colors. Since it’s much easier to paint dark over light, I decided to use white as my base coat. To make sure my stripes would be clear and crisp I used two coats of my white chalk paint.
After my paint was throughly dry I started planning my stripes. Because my drawers had a slightly rounded edge at the top that would be extremely difficult to transition I decided to start with a white stripe. This would allow this complicated area to blend on both the inside and the outside of the drawer. Making my stripes appear effortless.
The first key step to getting perfectly striped drawers is to make sure they stripes are evenly spaced. Now there are two ways to go about this. The hard way, that involves lots of time and measuring or the easy way using tape spacers.
To make these tape spacers I tore off small pieces of tape and placed them just under previous piece of tape. Each spacer should be 3/4 to 1 inch long. The beginning and the end are the easiest places to mess up a stripe so be sure you place a spacer at the front and the back of the drawer. Once all three spacers are in place add the next long piece of tape. Both the upper and lower pieces of tape should be touching the spacers without over lapping or pulling away. Once the next solid piece of tape is in place remove the spacers and reuse. This is a great shortcut to use when painting stripes of any kind.
The second key step to getting perfect stripes is to seal your tape. I don’t care if you are using expensive frog tape or the more economical blue painters tape like me, always always seal your tape. To seal it simply paint a light coat of the base color over the edges of the tape. This way any paint that was going to bleed will be the same color as the base coat. This will prevent any future bleeding of the next color leaving perfect stripes when the tape is removed.
Next I painted the sides the drawers with the second color for my stripes. It took two coats of paint for perfect coverage. Some people like to remove their tape immediately, however I prefer to wait until the paint is thoroughly dry. Nothing is worse than messing up your new paint job with wet paint finger prints.
The last step is to apply two coats of Johnson’s Paste Wax. After a little more dry time the drawers can be placed back into the dresser. Then the only thing left to do is enjoy those perfectly striped drawers!
I love adding special details to my furniture makeovers. It’s amazing what a difference adding stripes or a little bit of filigree makes. Do you have any special details you like? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
If you liked the look of my striped drawers here are a few accessories that are a perfect match!
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What a great idea to add stripes on the drawers! Looks great! 🙂
Thank you LB!
Love that luscious coral color! and great tutorial on perfect striping Cat!
Thank you so much Brenda!
Yes love the pink color too what is it?
Hi Elle! The color is Valspar Amber Rose 2003-3b. I purchased it at Lowes. Thank you for stopping by!
Love these stripes and thanks so much for the easy to follow tips! I think these stripes may be your signature 🙂 They’re awesome lady. Sending you big hugs, Coco
Thank you so much Coco! I would be ecstatic if they were my signature!
This is so fabulous, I love the striped drawers. Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop. watch for your feature on Monday xo
Thank you so much for featuring my striped drawer tutorial Katherine!! I really appreciate it!
Cat
This is soooooo cute! The stripes make such a nice touch to such a gorgeous piece. I always leave my drawers open so they might as well be cute, right? Such a wonderful idea.
Stephanie @ Mommyzoid.ca
PS: Thanks for sharing this sharing this over on the Ladies Collective Linkup! Hope to see you back again this week 🙂
Hi Stephanie!
I’ll be back! Thank you so much for stopping by!
Cat
HI, Cat
Theresa from Shoestring Elegance and the What to do Weekends Party, I absolutely love how your drawers turned out! Thank you so much for sharing them with us. Pinned and tweeted!
I can’t wait to see what you bring next!
Theresa @ Shoestring Elegnace
Thank you so much Theresa! I’ll be back this week!
Cat
Love this! I’m planning on doing this to one of my next projects.
I love this idea so much! Thank you for sharing the tips. I might do this to our drawers now.
Great idea for that added pop!
Thank you Leslie!!!
When you added the paint to the sides did affect how the drawers slide in and out? Love the way it looks!
Hi Kelsey!
It hasn’t affected the way the drawers slide in and out at all! I’d add an extra coat of furniture wax on the side for a little extra boost. I hope this help! Thank you so much for stopping by!
Cat
I recently painted the drawer sides with Minnie Mouse – I love the concept of pulling out the drawer and finding a surprise. I can’t tell you how much I love your stripes – I’ve been afraid to try, but your tips inspire me. Am painting a desk later today in navy. I can’t wait to try this. Thank you!
Minnie Mouse sounds amazing! My daughter would totally flip for that! Thank you so much for stopping by! Good luck with your dresser! I’d love to see it when you’re all done!
Cat
I love this dresser! Can’t wait to try the stripes! Would love to know what color you used. It’s the perfect coral!
Hi Melissa! The color is Valspar Amber Rose 2003-3b from Lowes. Thank you so much for stopping by!
These are so gorgeous! I don’t know why I’ve never completely understood, when I’ve read other posts, how to prevent the paint from bleeding under the tape but, reading yours made complete sense to me! Anywho, thanks for the tips and again, they look amazing!
Thank you so much Angie! and thank you for sharing my post! I really appreciate it!
I like to paint the inside of my drawers too but i never thought of doing stripes – i usually do a bright pop of color. Can’t wait to try stripes on the piece I’m working on now!
I absolutely love your trick about using tape as spacers! I love painting stripes on tables, walls etc but it always takes me forever with all the measuring & math then almost always having to do it all again because somehow the first calculations were off lol!!! Your tip will save me so much time – it’s genius! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thank you so much Jenny! Good luck on your project!!
Very nice!
I saw some drawers where there was a pattern added to the side, sort of like this but I think i was actually a multicolored wallpaper. I think I like this better. It’s simple, but, very eye-catching.
Thank you very much Arietta!