When we were trying to think of something fun and unique to give our little princesses (our granddaughters) for Christmas, my daughter suggested a dress-up wardrobe or armoire she had seen on Pinterest. My husband enjoys building things, and I enjoy repurposing household items so this seemed like the perfect project for us to take on. To go along with the princess theme, we are also planning on getting them some customized princess decals and pillows from Shutterfly (love the great variety they have for home decor!).

The first thing we had to decide is whether to try to find a piece of furniture to re-purpose or to build something from scratch. My husband searched around quite a bit and he decided it might be better to start off with a dresser or entertainment center as the base to the dress-up armoire. Since he is the one that has to do most of the building, I agreed with him.

I spent some time browsing at second hand stores and found only one piece of furniture that would work. I was excited because it was an entertainment center with a large TV opening, two drawers, and even two small cupboards.  The best thing about it though, was the fact that it was marked down to $1.99! While I was thrilled about the possibility of using the entertainment center, we ended up not buying it.  My husband would have had to do a lot of extra work to it so it could be used, plus it was very large and my daughter has limited space in her house.

We ended up using a sturdy 30+ year old dresser we already had. It wasn’t in use at the moment because the drawer slides needed to be repaired.  This dresser was actually used by my daughter when she was a young girl, so it seemed appropriate to use it for her girls.

I was planning on taking pictures of the dresser before my husband started working on it, but, as you can see from the picture above, I didn’t get one. This is because while I was in the house unpacking the supplies we had bought for the dresser transformation, my husband got right to work. By the time I went out to the garage with my camera, he had already started to dismantle it. I did manage to get a picture with one drawer still intact.

We were only going to use the bottom drawer so my husband took out all of the drawer hardware and wooden-slat dividers. The plan was to re-use the bottom drawer , but my husband decided he could build a sturdier one so he ended up taking out that hardware too.

Once my husband had everything removed that need to be removed, it was time to start building the armoire. The first thing he did was to cut a piece of 1/4” plywood to fit over where the drawer will be. He then also cut a piece of 1/4” plywood to fit the back of the dresser. This was to cover the wooden slats from the drawer and to make the dresser sturdier.

He also decided to dress up the top of the dresser with some crown molding. He then covered all of the holes using wood putty. He routered the edge of a 2” x 4” and used it as trim around the bottom of the dresser too, more to make it a little more stable than to make it fancier. At this time he also built the drawer.

Once the wood putty was dry, he spent some time sanding all of the rough spots and he also put in the new drawer slides. He then handed the dress-up armoire off to me…

My main job was to paint the dresser. I figured purple was the perfect color for a couple of princesses, especially since the mirror was gold. It took 2 coats of paint to get a nice cover on the armoire and the drawer. (You can see the painted drawer in the background.)

Once the drawer was dry my husband put in the bar to hang the dresses on and the handle on the dresser drawer.  Then we were ready to put it all together!

I hung all of the dresses I had found on the bar. Some of the dresses I found on clearance after Halloween and some were great Black Friday deals.  I bought 3 baskets to help organize the items in the drawer. These items included tiara, smaller pieces of play jewelry, and dress-up shoes.

On one side of the armoire, we hung three coat hooks. These were to hold necklaces, purses, etc. The wigs were for Snow White and Merida costumes. I found them on clearance after Halloween for $2.

The other side of the dresser was reserved for a very special mirror. It belonged to my husband’s grandmother, who had passed away this year.  It reminded both my daughter and I of the mirror from Snow White.