Apothecary Cabinet DIY

I have been wanting to have an apothecary cabinet for a while now. This is my inspiration piece from Little House of Four.

I had an old dresser I used in my daughter’s room when she was a baby and then in my second daughter’s room for closet storage. I thought it would be a good choice for this project. It has lots of wooden knobs, but actually only 3 drawers. I replaced the knobs with lable pulls.

Old white dresser with wooden knobs, with lots of knicks and scrapes from being used in our daughter’s room for 30 years!

The dresser was painted white, with wooden knobs. I had to get hubby to help me take off all the knobs, which was challenging! He had to drill holes for the new apothecary hardware which I purchased on Amazon. I ordered 3 different kinds of pulls and then tried them on to see how they would look. I went with the medium option, which can be seen on the final piece.

I had to order 2 sets of Weichuan 16pcs Zinc Alloy 1 5/8” x 3 1/4” Antique bronze label drawer pulls, because I had 19 knobs to replace.

These two did not fit very well, so I chose the medium hardware as it seemed the best option. It is shown in the final finished piece.

I removed the drawers and used a gel stain to achieve an antique look to the dresser. The gel stain is Old Masters in dark walnut #80704. This is available on Amazon.

I used a brush and a rag to apply the stain. I used gloves and throwaway brush and cloths. I applied a coat of the gel stain and after giving it a few minutes to set, I wiped area to make sure the stain was not too heavy overall. This gel stain gave it a nice antique look over the white preexisting paint.

The dresser did have some nicks and spots from wear and use, so I just went with how the stain maybe made those areas a bit more pronounced.

Try not to get the gel stain too thick on your brush or rag as it will be harder to wipe off. Just use what you think will give the amount of coverage you want. You can always go back and add more if you think it needs more coverage.

Side of dresser after gel stain applied.

I let it dry overnight and by the following morning it was ready for the hardware.

Hubby had to drill new holes for the new hardware, which took a bit of time, but I think it really worked to make the piece look like an apothecary cabinet.

Finished piece placed by my loveseat in the living room.

I placed it beside my loveseat in the living room and it is so wonderful for extra storage. Before I had a one drawer open side table, and this is much more useful.

I have more recently added a live plant and a cordless lamp to the apothecary cabinet. I have some wooden ball feet, that I may decide to replace bottom area with, but today is not that day….

Let me know what you think.

Things I didn’t know……Online books to read, Walmart online, Target online