How to Extend a Dresser

Have you ever wished your dresser was just a bit bigger for what you need?

Today I am going to show you how to extend a dresser.  This tutorial will take you through the process of how I extended my boys dresser to make it taller.  The process would be very similar to make the dresser longer/wider as well.

Lets get started!

When I started my boys bedroom makeover they didn’t have a dresser.  They were using those plastic bins to hold their clothes.  So I turned to one of my favorite places…the craig’s list free section.

I found this little cutie.  This isn’t even a screen shot, I took a picture of the screen with my phone to show my sister when I found this.  🙂  But you get the idea.  The arrow in the photo shows that this had only been posted for about 20 minutes when I saw it.  I responded right away and was the first one!  Yay!

When I got the dresser I quickly realized that since the top drawers were so small my boys would need more space.  So I decided to extend it.  I still had some good scrap plywood my father in law had rescued from his neighbor’s kitchen build so I set to work.

The first thing I did was remove the feet.  I used a crow bar and mallet to pry off them off.  Then I added some 1×4’s to each end with glue and nails, thinking this would add support.  I soon realized it wasn’t necessary and ended up taking them off anyway, live and learn!

The reason it wouldn’t work was because I wanted the plywood extension  on the sides to sit flush with the original dresser sides.  But there was a lip around the whole bottom of the dresser that needed to be removed.  So I marked a line where the lip was, and then cut around the whole bottom of my dresser with the circular saw to remove it.  It made the bottom flat, which is what I wanted.

I did some calculations on how tall I wanted the dresser to be.  What was most important was if my second son could open the top drawer and see inside. 🙂  So when I figured out how long my extension piece needed to be I cut two sheets of 3/4 plywood at that length with my Kreg Rip-Cut and Ryobi Circular Saw.  I am not giving you measurements because every dresser will be different.

I also want to note that you need to plan for dresser feet if you are using them.  I made this as built in, so I took into account that it will be sitting on a 2×4 and that added 3 1/2 inches to the overall height.

Once I had my plywood cut I drilled pocket holes on each side with my Kreg K5 Pocket-Hole Jig.  In the bottom right photo above I have three sheets of plywood ready.  Two for the sides and a middle piece which is just 3/4” shorter so I could add a 1×2 divider to match the top of the dresser.

I turned my dresser over and began fitting scrap 1×2’s for trim in the front and middle.  On the left you can see some wood on the sides, those are left over 3/4” plywood strips that are just marking the space for my actually plywood extensions.  They made it easy to mark my 1×2’s accurately.  In the photo on the right you can see I am using the middle divider to mark where to cut the 1×2’s.

I did this for the front and back…hopefully it will make more since as you continue reading.

Then I flipped both of the plywood sides with the 1×2’s attached over and connected them with my center 1×2 divider in the front.  I will get to the back in a minute.  I attached it with pocket hole screws and glue.  I hope this is making since!

Next, I took the whole thing and flipped it over to sit on the bottom of the dresser.  It was a little difficult to do this so I am not sure why I didn’t just attach the plywood sides to the dresser first and then add the 1×2’s later…obviously I wasn’t thinking…you could do it either way.  As you can see above I screwed in pocket hole screws where the arrows are on the right, attaching the plywood sides and the 1×2 front divider.  You can also see the back support needs attention…that is next.

Please note you need to make sure your dresser has adequate wood to drill into for attaching pocket holes.

For the middle support I added glue to the bottom of the dresser (left) and then added my plywood attaching with pocket hole screws to the dresser bottom.  Then I nailed the plywood to the front 1×2 with my Ryobi Nail gun and then attached the 1×2’s in the back.

The only money I spent on this dressers was for a sheet of 1/2” plywood for making the drawers. Using my Kreg Rip-Cut and Ryobi Circular Saw I cut all my drawer pieces.  I used the original dresser drawers to get my width and built my new drawers off of that measurement.  

Since I used 1/2 plywood for the drawers, I decided to use my Kreg Jig Micro Drill Guide System with my Kreg K5 Pocket-Hole Jig.  This drills a little bit smaller pocket hole, and is great for this thickness of wood.  

I set it up in my garage and used a light grey oops paint I have had for a while.  I sprayed it with my HomeRight Max Pro Sprayer and got amazing results, I love this sprayer!!