Personalize Your Dresser with Drawer Liners! :: Nursery Tuesday

Remember this beauty of a dresser??  Awhile back I shared with you how I completely gave this dresser a HUGE makeover for Emma Grace’s nursery.

Her dresser is still one of my favorite pieces in the room!  Yet every morning when I went into get out her clothes I was forced to look at these dull and unfinshed drawers.  They kind of bummed me out to be honest.  There is this beautiful dresser…then you open up the drawers and….blaahh!

Isn’t it kind of depressing?  I thought so too.  So a couple of weeks ago while I was out shopping I came across a super cute drawer liner from The Macbeth Collection for dirt cheap.  I’m talking a couple of bucks for two huge rolls.  It was chevron…it was gray…I just couldn’t say no!  I took that pretty little thing on home and measured out my drawers and got to work.  First things first I cleaned all of my drawers and vacuumed them out to make sure there wasn’t dust or anything else in my drawers that could get caught underneath the liner.

Then I measured the interior of my drawers, added about a 1/2″ on each side and then cut out six pieces, one for each drawer.  You can start adhering your liner from whichever end you would like but I found it easiest to start on the long side of my drawer.  Peel up just a couple of inches of the backing and place it as straight as you can across the back of the drawer.  It is okay to leave a bit of an overhang because you can cut it off later.

Press down a couple of inches along the the same edge.  It doesn’t matter exactly how much just so it will stay put for the moment.  If you realize that you are to far to one side or not straight just peel it up and reposition it again.  At this point it is best to try to get it as straight as you can and it will make the rest of the process easier.

Now slowly peel back the rest of the paper backing while making sure that you do not pull up the liner the that you have already pressed down.

Slowly start to smooth out the liner and work any air bubbles that you may have to the outside edges.

Next take a vinyl squeegee (a credit card will work great too!) and carefully push the edges of the liner into the side creases of the drawer.  It works well if you can push a little bit of the liner between the side and the base of the drawer pieces.  If not its okay and is not a really big deal.

When I cut vinyl I always try to make sure that I have the sharpest blade possible.  You can either switch out to a new blade or use a sharpener if you have one.  If you have a dull blade there is a chance that when you press down and pull back to cut your blade will not cut but just pull on the vinyl and it can tear.  Now carefully try to place the blade BETWEEN the side and the base of the drawer.  By doing this the edge of the liner is actually stuck between the two pieces and is less likely to get caught or torn on something later on.

Now SLOWLY start pulling off the excess strip that you just cut.

** Watch carefully while you pull to make sure you cut a CONTINUOUS straight line.  If for some reason you skipped cutting a part when you pull on the strip you can pull the rest of the liner and cause a tear!  (Trust me I learned the hard way!) **

Phew!  Now the hardest part is done.  Grab your squeegee again and press down on the edges once last to time to ensure good adhesion!

Take a step back and check out your hard work!  (Let’s be honest it wasn’t to hard was it?  Now that you’ve finished one drawer the rest will take no time at all!)

Now fill them up and enjoy a little bit of happiness every time you open your drawers!

That is before a crazy toddler comes in and flings everything out of the drawers so she can see the pretty paper!

Just warning you ahead of time! 🙂