The best way to banish bedroom clutter once and for all is to have a really good dresser. If you’re tired of clothes toppling from open shelves or hanging on the back of chairs. The perfect dresser offers much-needed drawers and critical counter space. So I decided to create DIY 6 Drawer Dresser plans for those who want to build it and eliminate all kinds of visual disorders.

I’ve built this dresser for our bedroom and painted it white to match the king size bed that I’ve built earlier. The drawers are very wide and could fit a lot of stuff. Since our bed is low I wanted the dresser to be a few inches from the ground. So I placed the dresser on a base made from 2x4s. Instead of adding handles I decided to leave a 3/4″ gap between the drawers so that they could be easily pulled out. 

If you’re looking for more organizational projects, check out a DIY Closet Organizer and my Garage Cabinets project. 

Six Drawer Dresser PDF

$8.97

This PDF download includes Cut Diagrams, a List of Supplies, and 3D illustrations with detailed steps to build the project. Measurements are in imperial and not metric. Does NOT include SketchUp/CAD files.

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Six Drawer Dresser

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Note: Lumber dimensions are listed as nominal size.  See lumber sizes for actual dimensions vs nominal.

Disclosure: Some of the links on this page as well as links in “tools for this project” and “material list” sections are affiliate links. 

Dimensions

Step 1 – Cut the Top, Bottom, Back and Side Pieces of the Dresser

The first step is to cut ¾” cabinet grade plywood for the top, bottom, back and sides using table saw or skill saw. It might be easier to cut the large pieces with a skill saw and then the smaller pieces with a table saw. Top and bottom pieces are 70” x 22”, two side pieces are 22” x 29 1/4″ and the back piece is 68 1/2″ x 29 1/4″.

Step 2 – Drill Pocket Holes

The back and side plywood pieces have pocket holes. Drill pocket holes as shown in the picture using a Kreg Jig making sure the setting is set for ¾” wood thickness. The top and bottom do not need pocket holes.

Step 3 – Assemble Bottom, Top, Back and Side Pieces

Assemble all of these pieces using wood glue and 1 ¼” pocket holes screw. Make sure that all sides are squared to each other.

Step 4 – Install Middle Divider Board

Cut an 18 3/4″ x 29 1/4″ middle divider board using remaining ¾” plywood. The middle divider piece is basically used for holding the drawer slides and supporting the drawer. By using the remaining ¾” plywood this divider will be slightly shorter than the depth of the dresser. Drill pocket holes on the bottom and top of the middle divider. Find the center of the dresser and install the divider piece leaving a ¾” gap in the front. The intent of this ¾” gap is the have the drawer cover boards slide inside flush to the front of the dresser.

Step 5 – Cut and Install Dresser Base

Take 2×4 and cut two pieces at 60” in length. Both ends of the 2×4 will need to be cut at 30°, see picture. One-piece will be used at the front of the base and the other piece will be used on the back of the base. Then cut two 2×4 pieces at 9” in length Drill two pocket holes on one end of the each 9” pieces and attach them to the front 60” long board using 2 1/2″ pocket hole Screws. Then take the back 60” long piece and attach it to the smaller 9” pieces using 2″ wood screws. The front of the base will not have any visible screws. Then place the dresser over the base rails and attach it using 2″ wood screws from the inside of the dresser.

Step 6 – Attach 1 ½” Board on the Front Perimeter of the Dresser

The front inside perimeter of the dresser will have a 1 ½” board all the way around. Measure and cut two long and two short boards with ¾” plywood as shown in the picture. Drill perpendicular pocket holes and attach the boards using 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws and wood glue. The pocket holes are going to be on the inside of the dresser.

Step 7 – Attach 2×3 Boards for Drawer Slides

Take 2×3 and cut six pieces at 20” in length. Using provided dimensions in the picture, attach these 2×3 boards on both sides of the dresser using 2″ wood screws.

Step 8 – Install Drawer Slides

Install 18″ drawer slides on the 2×3 boards and on the middle piece. You could use a Kreg Drawer Slider Jig to install the slides or just cut few scrap pieces and use it as a guide to have a consistent height of the slides. You need to make sure all drawer slides are at the same height per drawer. 

Step 9 – Cut and Attach 1 ½” Boards Between Drawers

Since this dresser will not have drawer handles there will be a ¾” wide gap on top and bottom of the middle drawer to use for pulling out the drawers. But this ¾” wide gap needs to be only ¾” deep. By placing a 1 ½ wide plywood behind this gap will solve the problem, otherwise, you will be able to see inside the dresser. Cut four 33 7/8” x 1 ½” pieces and drill two pocket holes on each side of the board. Then attach the lower boards at 10 1/8″ from the bottom of the dresser and the upper boards at 19 5/8″ per what is shown on the picture.

Step 10 – Make 6 Drawers Boxes

To make the drawers boxes fit perfectly, it’s always a good idea to measure each drawer separately. Using ½” plywood cut the drawer boards to provided dimension in the picture (your dimensions might be slightly different). Assemble the drawer boxes using wood glue and 1 1/4″ brad nails. Note: upper, middle and lower drawer boxes have different heights. 

Step 11 – Install Drawers Boxes

Attach drawer boxes to drawer slides with the help of Kreg Drawer Slider Jig.

Step 12 – Cut and Install Drawer Front Boards

After the drawer boxes have been installed, measure each cover board before cutting to make sure you have equal gaps between boards. The cover boards could be used from plywood if you’re just painting it. But if you choose to stain the boards then you could use pinewood to show the wood grains. The middle drawer will have a 3/4″ gap on top and bottom for pulling out the drawer boxes, as described in step 9.

Step 13 – Paint and Stain

The neat part about building your own custom furniture is that you could paint or stain it to whatever color you want. You could either stain the entire thing or do a combination of staining and painting like I did with this dresser. I painted the dresser white to match our headboard. Then I stained the cover boards before attaching them to the drawer boxes.

First I sanded the boards using a random orbital sander then I used Jacobean stain for the first layer. I didn’t stain the entire board with Jocaboan, I made random strokes sporadically thru the board following the wood grain. Then the remaining areas that were not stained I filled in with Classic Gray stain. (see picture). After the stain dries, I took a dry brush and slightly dipped the tip of a brush into the white paint. Then lightly brush the boards applying very little pressure on the brush. Repeat the process until you get the desired look. Once the paint dries you could apply polyurethane to seal the stain and pain. You’re done with this DIY 6 drawer dresser.