A white dresser with blue pink and gold wallaper sits in front of a ombred wall. A chair and plant sit on other side of a the dresser. A plant and stack of books rest on the the dresser.
Featured design: Shibori Wing Spots by nouveau_bohemian

Want to give some of your beloved furniture a second life? See a thrifted furniture piece that would look great after some TLC? If your answer is ‘yes’ to these questions keep reading. Spoonflower’s Peel and Stick Wallpaper is just what you need to update your furniture with ease. Our guest contributor and friend Barb Blair walks us through the steps.

The author of Furniture Makes the Room and Furniture Makeovers is back to show you how to transform a thrifted dresser (or any piece of furniture!) with just a few tools from your local hardware store and Spoonflower’s Peel and Stick wallpaper. Bonus: Barb’s sharing her top tip for achieving seamless dresser drawer fronts when applying wallpaper. Let’s get started!

materials to wallpaper a dresser lay on a white background. Materials include a roll of wallpaper, painters tape, a squeegee, scissors, a sanding block, a measuring device and craft knife.

Materials to Wallpaper Furniture

  • Peel and Stick Wallpaper—Barb is using Shibori Wing Spots by nouveau_bohemian
  • Furniture piece—Barb is updating a dresser
  • Craft knife
  • Paint
  • Paintbrush
  • 6” foam roller
  • Paint tray
  • Carpenters square or ruler
  • Squeegee (included in your Spoonflower Wallpaper order)
  • Shop towels
  • Painter’s tape
  • Dropcloth

Note From Barb:

For my 37” wide x 34” tall x 18” deep dresser ( 94 cm wide x 86.4 cm tall x 45.7 cm deep) I used (2) 9′ (274.3 cm) rolls of Shibori Wing Spots and (2) 9′ (274.3 cm) rolls of Shibori Wing Spots (rotated). Jump ahead to step 5 to learn why I ordered a rotated version of Shibori Wing Spots.

How to Refresh a Dresser with Wallpaper

A photo of a finished wallpaper dresser and an unfinished dresser split across diagonally.
Give your furniture a second life with Peel & Stick Wallpaper.

1. Prep Your Furniture

If any repairs need to be made to the piece of furniture, get those done first. When wallpapering a piece of furniture, you want the surface of your furniture piece to be completely smooth. Plan out the finished look, including what hardware you will be using.

If the current hardware holes do not work for the new hardware, go ahead and wood-fill the old hardware holes and drill the holes for the new hardware. I am a firm believer in fresh new hardware to complete a furniture makeover, and I promise you will not want to have to remove or drill through your beautiful wallpaper to create new hardware holes!

A close up of a sandpaper block sits on the top of the dresser .
Lightly sand down your furniture with a medium grit sanding sponge in the direction of the wood grain.

2. Sand Your Furniture

Lightly sand down the entire piece using a medium grit sanding sponge. Be sure to sand with the direction of the wood grain so that you don’t scratch the wood surface. This light sanding is simply to remove any dirt, and give the surface a little porosity and holding power for the paint. Lightly sand your surface. Pushing super hard while sanding could result in sanding through the top veneer surface.

Remove all of the sanding dust by vacuuming and then wiping down your furniture with a slightly damp shop towel or lint-free cloth.

Three drawers standing up. The sides are taped with green painters tape. The rolls sits on top of one of the drawers along with a craft knife.
Using painter’s tape, tape off all edges and drawer runners.

3. Tape Your Furniture for Painting

Tape off all edges and drawer runners with painter’s tape (I prefer Frog Tape) so that your painted edges stay clean and crisp. Details matter, and I personally do not want to see messy paint sloshes on the side of an open drawer.

A paint roller layers on a painted dresser drawer.
Remove the knobs from your drawers and paint the drawers on your drop cloth.

4. Paint Your Furniture

Pour your paint color of choice into the paint tray, and get your paint brush and foam roller ready. This particular piece of furniture has super flat surfaces (for the most part), so I am rolling almost the entire piece with a foam roller.

There are a few minor places where I cut in around the edges with a paintbrush. Again, I love clean crisp details, so I am also painting the back of the furniture piece to make the piece look completely cohesive and finished. I chose a lighter paint color to match the background of the wallpaper, so it is taking two coats of paint to get the coverage that I want.

I prefer that my paint color always matches the base of the wallpaper that I’m using so that it looks seamless and crisp. You can either eye that paint color or take a sample of the wallpaper with you to the paint store and have it matched.

A white dresser with the shelves removed sits on a shop cloth in front of a white background.
My painted dresser. Give the paint about 4-6 hours to dry before moving to the next step.

5. Prep Your Wallpaper for Installation

Once you are completely finished painting, and the piece is completely dry (usually 4-6 hours) it is time to plan out your wallpaper application. It is important that you already have pre-planned an overall wallpaper design for the piece that you are creating. (Pre-installation note: Spoonflower’s installation instructions are intended for wallpaper applications on walls. We recommend utilizing a test swatch on any alternative materials to test performance prior to completing your full project.)

Most wallpaper designs are vertical. Vertical is awesome for walls and smaller pieces of furniture. However, creating wallpaper masterpieces on larger furniture pieces usually requires using horizontal patterns so that there is not a seam on the drawer fronts. Another reason to have the pattern printed horizontally is so that the pattern can match seamlessly down the front of the furniture piece and look like a “painting.”

Spoonflower is amazing at custom printing wallpaper for these types of projects, so get the correct measurements for the piece you are working on and have them printed accordingly. 

Pro tip:

If you don’t see a horizontal version of a pattern you want to use in the Marketplace, log in to your Spoonflower account and message the designer directly to request a rotated version (also known as railroad) by selecting the Contact button on the designer’s shop page.
Barb places the wallpaper on the side of the dresses to measure how wide it needs to be.
Place your wallpaper against the side of your dresser to measure how much you’ll need.
Barb cuts out the desired amount of wallpaper to cover the side of the dresser.
Cut your wallpaper according to the measurement for the side of the dresser.

6. Measure the Wallpaper to the Furniture Sides

Place the wallpaper against the sides of the piece of furniture. With this dresser, there is a perfect inlay situation on the sides, so I am roughly measuring the size of the wallpaper piece that I needed by holding the wallpaper up to the side of the furniture piece, and cut it accordingly, leaving about an inch or so in overage.

Barb removing the paper backing from the wallpaper in order to attach it to the dresser.
Peel off the backing of the wallpaper.
Barb smoothes out the wallpaper that is attached to the side of the dresser with a plastic squeegee.
Use the squeegee to smooth out air bubbles once you’ve applied the wallpaper.

7. Apply the Wallpaper to the Furniture Sides

Once you have your wallpaper piece cut out, peel off the backing and apply the wallpaper. I find that the easiest way to do this on furniture is to line up the straight edge of the wallpaper with the straight edge of the furniture and apply and smooth with your hands from side to side until you have smoothed the paper all the way down to the bottom.

When the entire piece of wallpaper has been applied and is exactly where you want it, use the plastic squeegee to smooth out any air bubbles and secure the paper to the piece. The great thing about the removable woven wallpaper is that you have time to adjust before the final smoothing, so don’t stress. Enjoy the process!

Barb using a carpenter's square and craft knife to cut the excess wallpaper on the dresser.
Trim off the excess wallpaper edges using a carpenter’s square or ruler and craft knife.
Barb removes the excess wallpaper that she's cut with her craft knife.
Pull the excess wallpaper that’s been trimmed from the edges.

7. Trim the Wallpaper Edges

Once the wallpaper is exactly where you want it and completely smooth and free of air bubbles, it is time to trim the edges. I prefer to use a carpenter’s square in situations like this because I can cut the top line and then go right into cutting the side line without having to pick up and move my tool. This tool also helps in keeping the corners nice and crisp as this is where many make mistakes and tear or undercut their paper.

If you do not have a carpenter’s square, a ruler will absolutely do the trick as well! Use your craft knife with removable blades to trim the excess paper. Push the carpenter’s square right up to the edge of the trim and cut in a straight line between the carpenter’s square and the wood trim.

Be careful not to press into your wood too hard to prevent damaging the wood. Your craft knife blades should be refreshed after each cut in order to keep things nice and clean. If you use the same blade the entire time, your paper will fray and will not cut cleanly. Let’s make beautiful furniture!

A roll of wallpaper lays across a dresser drawer that is facing upward.
Organize the drawers in the order next to each other as they appear in the dresser to cut the wallpaper in an uninterrupted direction.

8. Layout the Wallpaper on the Drawer Fronts

Once the sides of your furniture piece are papered, it is time to paper the drawer fronts. Here is where I feel like things need to be done a certain way for the pattern to match up all the way down the front of the drawers. I am pretty particular about this step and get asked about it all the time.

So, here is the deal. I take out all the drawers and line them up on the floor exactly as they would appear in the piece of furniture. I make sure they are all right next to each other with just enough space for my craft knife to cut in between each drawer. I then lay my wallpaper over the drawer fronts in one big piece (leave the backing on at this point) and use my craft knife to cut in between each drawer.

This step creates my pieces for the front of each drawer and ensures that my design will match up once applied to the drawer fronts. Even with the wood trim in between the drawers, this tight cutting ensures that most of the design stays present and will flow seamlessly down the front of the furniture piece.

Four dresser drawers lay facing upward with measured pieces of wallpaper laying on top of them. Other materials sit in the distance.
Once you’ve cut the wallpaper in the shape of the drawer fronts you can space them out.
A close up of the dresser drawers facing up with measured wallpaper on top of them.
Another look at the drawer fronts. Notice, that although they were cut closely, the wallpaper is still a bit larger than the drawers.

9. Apply the Wallpaper to the Drawer Fronts

Remove the backing from the wallpaper and apply each piece to its designated drawer front. I work from left to right on the drawers, but whichever way you work, you will want to work from one side to the other, smoothing the paper as you go with your hands. Once the wallpaper is in place, do the final smoothing with the squeegee to remove any air bubbles and to firmly adhere the wallpaper to the drawer front. 

Barb cutting the excess wallpaper from the side of a dresser drawer using a craft knife.
Once the wallpaper is applied, trim off the extra paper on the sides.
Barb cutting the excess wallpaper from a dresser drawer using a craft knife.
Remember to trim the excess paper on the bottom (or top) as well.

10. Trim the Wallpaper Edges

Once the wallpaper is firmly applied to each drawer front, trim off the excess paper using your craft knife. I find that the easiest way to do this is to hold onto the loose edge of the wallpaper and slide my craft knife straight down the edge of the drawer, using the wood as my guideline. This ensures that the paper is flush with the edge of the drawer and gives a nice clean line.

Again, make sure to remove your craft knife blade in between each cut to make sure that your knife stays sharp and your wallpaper edges are clean. 

Close up of the side of the finished dresser and drawers. Gold drawer knobs are added.
Add new hardware that compliments your wallpaper to your drawers.

11. Add the Hardware

Once the wallpaper is applied to the drawer fronts and trimmed to perfection, it is time to add your new hardware! Also, I love to line the drawers with paper as well, so be sure to order enough paper to line the drawers.

Step back and enjoy all of your hard work. I hope you all have enjoyed this project, and can’t wait to see the masterpieces that you create! Be sure to tag @spoonflower and @knackstudio on Instagram so we can see what you’ve made.

Optional: Add Wallpaper to the Inside of Your Drawers

Apply the paper to the inside of the drawers the same way you did on the outside of the piece using the carpenter square and craft knife to trim to fit.

Remove the backing and adhere the wallpaper to the inside of the drawer. It is so nice to open the drawer and see the beautiful paper, plus it’s a nice layer to have next to all of your clothing (or whatever you decide to store in your piece) as well!

Vendor Credits:
Florals: Julie Dodds of Willow Florals
Flamingo Painting: Meredith Piper
Blue Ceramic Vessel: Annie Singletary

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of wallpaper can I use on furniture? 
We suggest using our Peel and Stick or Prepasted Removable Smooth wallpaper options. These durable wallpapers are easy to readjust and remove.  
Is Peel and Stick wallpaper permanently placed on the furniture? 
Peel and Stick is easy to install and remove. See the steps to do so in our help center article
What is the best surface for these removeable wallpapers? 
Smooth, flat, non-textured surfaces work best for our Peel and Stick wallpaper. 

Want More Peel & Stick Projects

The opportunities to decorate with Peel & Stick Wallpaper are pretty vast. From holiday stickers to a kitchen tile backsplash—there’s a project for almost any occasion or idea. Find your next how-to, here!
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About the Guest Author

Barb Blair is famous for her knack with furniture, spotting classic pieces, transforming them into modern showstoppers, and styling them within gorgeous spaces. Blair believes firmly in surrounding yourself with the items you love, ignoring trends, never being afraid of mixing things up, and creating a home that is uniquely you!  Personalized furniture has the power to make an entire room. See more of Blair’s creations on her Instagram feed @knackstudio and feel free to say hello and keep up with her personal Instagram @barbiejblair.