How to Build a Kendal Extra Wide Dresser: A Complete DIY Plan

I’ve been wanting to build a dresser for some time now and finally decided to take the plunge.  After searching for a long time to find one I like, I settled on a modified version of Ana White’s Kendal Extra Wide Dresser.  This has an overall clean design and I like the way the drawers are inset into the frame & Ana did a great job with the design.

For my version, I made some modifications to Ana’s design.  First of all, I made some changes to the frame construction, specifically changing the back supports to 1x4s (since I read that some of the drawer slide back supports didn’t line up.  I also used 1x2s for the bottom support and added several to the top specifically to attach the dresser top surface to the frame.

I also modified the top of the dresser by framing the plywood with 1×3 strips.  In my version, I mitered the corners to give the top a decorative look since I’m staining mine instead of painting it.  If I were painting, I’d go the east route and use butt joints on the trim.  Since this design has the plywood top fitting just inside the side panels (see the model to know exactly what I’m talking about) I added those top supports so I could attach the top by screwing to these from underneath.

Lastly, I constructed the drawers using 1/2″ plywood instead of the 1x lumber in Ana’s original plan.  Of course, this was after I cut wood according to her original plan.  I thought it made the drawers look to chunky and smaller and after I measured all the other drawers in various pieces of furniture around the house it looks like 1/2″ is pretty much the standard.  And in hindsight, I’m really pleased with that decision.  The other difference in the drawers was how I constructed the bottom.  I used a dado blade on my table saw to cut 1/4″ grooves 1/4″ from the bottom of the drawers and constructed the drawers so that the bottom was inset into the sides.  This is, in my opinion, a little more sturdy than nailing the drawer bottoms to the boxes.

These changes are minor and the dresser will look & function great either way.  I’ve also created a full 3D SketchUp model of the Kendal Extra Wide Dresser so you can download, deconstruct and manipulate it however you would like.

Downloadable $5 Plan PDF

I’ve also created a printable PDF version of this plan which you can purchase for $5 (it’s 43 pages in all).  It’s all the info from the blog posts, but I’ve compiled it for easy printing and included shopping lists, cut diagrams and helpful pictures.  Basically, if you want a handy printable version so you don’t have to get sawdust all over your computer, you might consider purchasing this download.

Cut List – Dresser Top

• 1 – 3/4″ plywood @ 15 1/2″ x 49 1/2″ (dresser top)
• 2 – 1x3s @ 54 5/8″ (top trim)
• 2 – 1x3s @ 20 1/2″ (top trim)

Cut List – Dresser Frame

• 2 – 3/4″ plywood @ 15 1/2″ x 26 1/4″ (side panels)
• 4 – 2x2s @ 31 1/4″
• 2 – 2x2s @ 49 1/2″
• 3 – 1x4s @ 49 1/2″ (these can be cheap wood… back supports)
• 3 – 1×2 @ 49 1/2″ (front drawer face frame)
• 4 – 1x2s @ 15 1/2″ (top & bottom supports)
• 4 – 1x2s @ 7 1/2″

Cut List – Drawers

• 14 – 1/2″ plywood @ 5 3/4″ x 16″ (drawer box sides)
• 8 – 1/2″ plywood @ 5 3/4″ x 22 3/8″
• 6 – 1/2″plywood @ 5 3/4″ x 14″
• 4 – 1/4″ plywood @ 22 7/8″ x 15 1/2″ (drawer bottoms, large)
• 3 – 1/4″ plywood @ 14 1/2″ x 15 1/2″ (drawer bottoms, small)
• 3 – 1×8 @ 15 3/4″
• 4 – 1×8 @ 24 1/8″
• 8 – 1/4″ lattice @ 24 1/8″
• 6 – 1/4″ lattice @ 15 3/4″
• 14 – 1/4″ lattice @ 7 1/4″

Shopping List

• 1 – 3/4″ plywood @ 4′ x 8′ – Buy a nice sanded hardwood plywood since this will be the sides and top of your dresser.  You will only use about half of the plywood.  Since the top panel is slightly longer than 4′, you can’t get away with half 🙁
• 1 – 1/2″ plywood @ 4′ x 8′ – This is for your drawer boxes.
• 1 – 1/4″ plywood @ 4′ x 8′ – This will be for your drawer bottoms and the back of the dresser
• 3 – 2×2 @ 8′ lumber
• 3 – 1×4 @ 8′ pine boards – I suggest cheap wood here since this is basically frame supports for the back that will be covered up.
• 2 – 1×3 @ 8′ select pine or hardwood boards – These will be trim for the dresser top, so get nice wood.
• 3 – 1×2 @ 6′ select pine or hardwood boards – These will be for the face frame
• 2 – 1×8 @ 8′ select pine or hardwood boards – These will be the drawer faces
• Lattice strips – You can cut these to size at Home Depot.  You will need 3 @ 4′ long, 4 @ 5 1/2′ and 3 @ 7 1/2′.  This gives you a little room to work with.
• 7 – 16″ bottom mount drawer slides
• 4 – rear drawer track sockets
• 7 – drawer pulls of your choice

Below is a cut diagram for the dresser.  This does not include the lattice trim (see the shopping list above).

Here’s a shot of the almost finished product so you can get an idea of the look & feel of it.

Cutting Your Wood

I recommend that you have the store make initial cuts on your plywood when you buy it.  This makes the work at home much easier (unless you have a table saw large enough to handle a full sheet of plywood!) and also helps with transportation.

That involves ripping* the 3/4″ plywood sheet into 2 strips 15 1/2″ wide.  That will leave a strip slightly shorter than 17″ (that’s because the saw blade is around 1/8″ thick… this is important to remember when you’re working on your own cuts & measuring your stock).  The folks at Home Depot or Lowes will do this for you, but make sure that they measure carefully and get the cuts exactly… you don’t want that pesky saw blade to turn your 15 1/2″ strip into a 15 3/8″ strip!  These will be your dresser top and the sides.

*Ripping wood means cutting it in the direction of the grain.  Cutting against the grain is referred to as “cross-cutting.”

Next, rip your 1/2″ plywood into 6 strips 5 3/4″ wide.  These strips will be used for your drawer boxes.  Again, have the folks at the store cut your strips and then do the cross cuts at home.  I’ll go over the way I do that below.  Pay close attention to these cuts because it’s easy to get confused with all the panels.  You can always cut something too long, but if you cut it too short, then there’s not much you can do about that!

I would also suggest that you wait to do your cross cuts until you’ve built the dresser frame and measure them individually.  This won’t matter for the drawer box panels that are 16″ (the depth of the drawers) but it will for the panels that comprise the front and back of the drawer boxes.  Even the best measured plans are dealing with wood which can contract or expand slightly based on humidity.  Measuring the drawers individually takes a little longer but may save you some work in the long run.

The 1/4″ plywood sheet will provide your drawer bottoms and the back of the dresser.  You’ll want to have the store rip a 15 1/2″ strip from your sheet, but you’ll need to do the other cuts at home.  You’ll have 4 large drawer bottoms and 3 smaller ones.

Constructing the Frame

Before we get started, here’s a vision of the frame so you can see what we’re going for.  I’ve added measurements so you can make sure you cut your 1x2s and 2x2s appropriately.

Once you’ve cut your plywood sides, the 4 2×2 legs and the frame (which consists of your 2x2s and 1x2s), you’ll want to drill your pocket holes all together.  This takes a little while and I’ve definitely found it helpful to knock all this out at one time.

You’ll use pocket holes to attach the plywood sides to the legs as well as to the dresser top.  For the top, the screws will actually attach to the trim, so that’s why my plan has additional cross supports to attach the dresser top (more on that later).

You’ll notice that my wood looks really different in these pictures.  That’s because I used a good bit of “reclaimed” wood to build this particular dresser (you can see my other one in the background!)

A note on the hardware… when attaching the 3/4″ boards to other 3/4″ stock, you’ll use 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws.  When attaching 2x2s to other 2x2s, you’ll use 2″ pocket hole screws.  Make sure that when you are drilling your pocket holes that you measure and make adjustments to your Kreg Jig and the drill bit itself or you’ll end up drilling a hole in your jig (like I did!)

Also, don’t get so caught up in drilling your pocket holes that you end up drilling some in your dresser legs (again like I did!).  These won’t have any holes at all.  You’ll see on one leg that I had to add plugs where I drilled holes.  What would a project be without a bunch of mistakes?  That’s what wood filler is for!

Here are a couple tips on assembling the frame.

First, sand your wood before assembling everything.  Sanding is the biggest pain and I like to try and knock it all out at once.  It makes a total mess in the garage/workshop/basement/wherever.  You’ll inevitably want to do a little more once you get the whole thing put together where you find some right edges, but try to do as much as you can up front.

Also, sand after you drill your pocket holes since drilling them will leave some rough edges around the holes.

Second, glue all your joints with a good quality wood glue.

Third, notice that the inside of the side panels – the side you drilled the pocket holes on – attach flush to the edge of the 2×2 legs.  Be careful here!  This can create some aggravation when you’re trying to clamp the sides to the legs to attach.  Don’t make the mistake of assembling with the outside facing side of dresser panel flush with the edge of the legs.  The inside facing side of the panel should be the side flush with the edge of the legs.

You may also find that you like certain sides of your legs and want a particular face to be more visible, especially if you’re staining the dresser, so take care to make sure that the legs are attached such that the best faces are visible.

Forth, go ahead and spring for the Kreg clamps, both the right angle clamp and the face clamp.  These are so handy and once you get the screw set for the right tension, you can manage them one-handed which is a big plus!

At this point, you should have the sides and back assembled and your dresser should look like this:

Next, assemble the face frame 1x2s.

Next, add the facing for the drawers and the top supports (3) and bottom support (1).

Here’s another view with measurements.  Note that the top supports are slightly shorter than the bottom support.  This is because the top supports are joining 2 2x2s and the bottom support is joining a 2×2 to a 1×2.

Fifth, check to make sure that your joins are square often!  Because the Kendal Extra Wide Dresser has “inset” drawers that are set into the face frame (vs. “overlay” drawers in which the drawer face slightly overlaps the frame), you don’t have a lot of room for error.  There should be about a 1/8″ gap around the drawer faces between the face and the frame, so if your frame is not square, that will give you fits when you’re making your drawers.  Use a speed square to quickly tell if your joints are square.

Cutting & Assembling the Dresser Top

The dresser top consists of a piece of 3/4″ plywood 15 1/2″ by 49 1/2″ which will be wrapped in 1×3″ poplar trim strips (in this project… you can use whatever wood you want).  I cut the trim on diagonal joints because I like the look, however you are free to use butt joints as well.  It just depends on the look that you’re going for.

The steps here are to:

1. Cut your plywood top
2. Cut your 1x3s
3. Assemble the trim to the top with pocket hole screws and wood glue (I am also using a biscuit joiner for additional stability, but that’s optional!)

When cutting trim like this, it’s critical to get your angles exactly right at 45°.  It’s easier and more “forgiving” to use butt joints, but in this project, I intend to stain the top so I prefer this slightly more decorative approach.  Also, when cutting, I tend to err on the long side so I can make minute adjustments to ensure that there are no gaps.  This is kind of tedious and you definitely need to be patient here.

After cutting the trim, drill your pocket holes and then biscuit joints (if using them).  Below you can see that I’m attaching with pocket holes at the corners and along the edge.  If you are using a biscuit joiner, be sure to cut your biscuit slots with the top surface of both the plywood and the trim facing down.  This way the top joints are flush.  Since your plywood and trim are different kinds of wood they will probably have very slight differences in width.  Don’t expect your wood, especially if you bought it from one of the big box home improvement centers, to be perfect.  It never is!

It’s also important to attach your trim with the appropriate sides facing the top.  It’s easy to make an error here if you’re not paying attention.  I suggest writing the surface face on your wood when assembling it.

I’ve marked the surface of my plywood as well so that the nicest side is used for the top, especially since I’ll be staining this dresser.

Here’s a picture of the fully assembled top with trim.  Use wood glue when joining all surfaces.  The Kreg clamp in the bottom right is really invaluable to ensure that the surfaces of your trim are flush.

And finally, here’s the fully assembled dresser top, drying and waiting to be sanded, assembled to the frame and stained.

Building the Drawers

This dresser has 3 small drawers on the top and 4 larger drawers underneath.  First I’ll go over the small drawer construction in detail so you can see the assembly and get the measurements, then I’ll show you the measurements for the 4 larger drawers.  I would strongly recommend that you build the drawers after you’ve completed the frame assembly to compensate for variations in the frame measurements.  Unless you’re an engineer and make everything perfectly, you’re probably going to have some slight variation in your frame construction.

Since the drawers need to be sized so that there’s a 1/2″ gap between the drawer box and the sides to accommodate the drawer slides, it’s smart to take the extra time to measure the width of each drawer individually.  To clarify, you can go ahead and cut the 16″ drawer box sides all at one time since all the drawers will have the same depth (unless you’ve modified my original plan… then re-measure!).  It’s the drawer front & back pieces that you need to be careful with, as well as the drawer faces and lattice trim.  

My plan is different from Ana White’s in that instead of using 1x6s for the drawer box with a 1/4″ panel nailed to the bottom, I’m using 1/2″ plywood and cutting dados (or grooves) 1/4″ from the bottom of the drawer box which the bottom of the drawer will slide into.  The main reason I went this route is that I think the 1x lumber makes the drawers look a little too chunky.  If you measure the drawer boxes in your various furniture, you’ll find most of them are 1/2″ thick.  They have a little more elegant look in my opinion.  Also, I find that the dado construction makes the drawers a little more sturdy.

Don’t be intimidated by cutting dado grooves in your drawer panels.  Yes, you’re going to need a dado blade.  My recommendation is this one from Freud.  It is relatively inexpensive and makes great, smooth cuts.  I researched these for a while looking for a good balance between high quality and economical and have been really pleased with this one.  It comes with risers that will cut up to a 13/16″ dado, but my saw’s arbor (that’s the bolt that holds the blades on it) is only long enough to get about 1/2″.

Below is the dado setup.  Use a carpenter’s square to measure 1/4″ deep and 1/4″ from the fence.

After cutting the dado grooves in the drawer box panels, I assembled them using pocket hole construction with the handy Kreg Jig.  If you haven’t bought one of these yet, what are you waiting for?  Seriously, these things are so incredibly handy.  Not necessary… you can nail and screw without one, but they really do make an incredibly strong joint and make constructing these drawers so much easier.

I marked each panel on the inside for the pocket holes.  I’m going to drill on the outside so the pocket holes won’t be visible (on the front they’ll be covered by the drawer face and no one will see the back), and I can see exactly where to line up the panel when I have it clamped into the Kreg Jig.

For assembling the panels, I found that the Kreg clamps are really helpful.  You can accomplish the same thing with just about any other clamps, but when you’re doing this and balancing drawer box panels while trying to clamp, the Kreg clamps are quite handy.

Be sure to sand the panels before constructing them.  You don’t want to mess with sanding once the drawers are constructed because getting into the corners will be a pain.

You’ll also want to have your drawer bottoms handy.  It will be helpful, when inserting the drawer bottoms into the dado grooves, if you sand the edges of the drawer bottoms so they taper slightly.  This will allow them to get all the way into the dado groves and allow for a little bit of movement as you’re lining up the sides.

While the Kreg Jig does get great strong joints, sometimes it can be a challenge clamping the pieces so they don’t slide when trying to attach them.  For these drawer box panels, I used a block of scrap wood and a clamp to stop the panel from creeping in when screwing.  The Kreg clamp that I used on the frame legs is a little heavy duty for this 1/2″ plywood, so I found this method, while requiring a little balance with your hands lining things up and clamping, to be much easier.  This is where the other Kreg clamp comes in handy since using it with one hand is easy.  Again, you don’t need the brand name clamp, but it sure is convenient!

Here’s a shot of the corner construction similar to the model above, but this is what it really looks like.

Here’s a shot of the fully constructed drawer box (upside down).  Note that the face frame hasn’t been attached yet.

Now that I’ve gone over the the basics of the drawer construction, here’s the dimensions and construction of the 4 larger drawers.  

Building the Drawer Faces

I wanted to give the dresser drawers a little more visual impact with 1/4″ lattice trim instead of them having just a flat surface with a drawer pull.  If you don’t want to do that, you’ll need to modify where you put your drawer rails.  Instead of them being inset 1″ (for the 1×8 drawer faces which are actually 3/4″ thick plus the 1/4″ lattice), you’ll need to move them forward slightly to 3/4″.

You can buy strips of lattice at Home Depot or Lowes and you’ll find them in the moulding section.  You’ve got a few options; they come in pine either unfinished or finished or you can find them in a synthetic material like PVC.  The benefit to the PVC is that they are perfectly straight.  You may also find them in PVC with a laminate that’s supposed to be stainable and paintable.  They’re probably great, but I’ve stuck to the old school pine ones.  I guess I’m just afraid that the paint will peel over time.

Here’s a picture of the lattice in case you’re not clear on what I’m talking about.

You can either miter the corners of the lattice trim or use butt joints.  Since I mitered the trim on the dresser top, I wanted to match that look on the drawers.  This is not complicated, it’s just tedious and there are a lot of strips to cut for the 7 drawers.  I recommend cutting each drawer’s trim individually and measuring (and re-measuring) each step of the way since the trim needs to fit exactly.

Also, don’t assume that your miter saw’s 45° setting is correct.  On my Delta saw, I’ve removed the clip that clicks & locks at the 45° mark and instead measure each time with a carpenter’s square (unplug the saw when you do this!).  I’ve found out the hard way that my saw’s printed measurements are slightly off.

Here I’ve cut each strip of lattice, first with the 45s on the right side of each strip.  Use a carpenter’s square to draw a 45° line as a guide for the saw blade.  Then I turn the strips over and measure each one individually along the side to which I’m going to attach it and mark it before I cut.  The other benefit to this method is that I don’t have to adjust the saw again since I’m making the other side cut with the lattice upside down.  I always cut it slightly “generous” as I can always shave a little off, but I can’t add any back!

Before attaching the lattice, I lay it out on top of the drawer face to make sure everything fits precisely.  I wish I had a shortcut for this part, but since I cut each drawer face individually, I want to get the trim matching the particular faces perfectly.  Yea, I know, it’s a lot of cutting…

Here’s a shot of the lattice ready to be attached to a drawer face.

As you can see, this will make a really nice compliment to the dresser top construction.  For attaching the trim to the drawer faces, you can either go the simple, “old school” route with glue and something heavy to hold them down…

Or you can go with the “new school” route of nailing them down with finishing brad nails. Make sure you use glue either way!  You can do this with a hammer and nails or with a nail gun if you have access to one.  If you use a hammer, you’ll want to get nail setter to countersink the nails slightly.  You will also need a little stainable wood filler to fill in the nail holes.  If you use a nail gun, you’ll want 18 gauge 5/8″ finishing nails since the face plate plus the lattice trim is 1″ thick.

Here’s another shot of the almost finished dresser with the drawer faces laid into the drawers.

Attaching Drawer Slides

However, before attaching the drawer faces, we need to mount the drawer slides to the frame.  Because getting the drawer faces attached with the appropriate spacing can be a tedious task, I’m going to attach the drawer slides to both the frame and the drawers before attaching the faces, put them in the dresser, then use a spacing technique to attach the faces, ensuring that there is an equal space between all the drawer faces and the face frame of the dresser.

Adding the drawer slides to the Kendal Extra Wide Dresser is a bit tedious, so I thought it warranted a post on it’s own.  It’s not particularly hard, but in my opinion it’s better to add the slides after assembling the frame so you can make any minor adjustments that are necessary.  But doing that does involve contorting yourself so you can measure, hold the slides in place and screw them in.  It would be really helpful if you have 3 hands for this step! I’m using 16″ bottom mount drawer slides for the drawers.  This plan also calls for 4 rear drawer track sockets because the slides will be mounted on the back of the 1×4 rear supports.

The poker I’m using (sorry for the blurry picture!) is really helpful to get the little drawer slide screws started.  You’ll need to the rear drawer track sockets to attach the slides to the back supports.

The first step is to measure and attach the drawer slides to the sides of the dresser.  These are the easiest ones to mount.

I’m using an old strip of 1/4″ wood underneath the drawer slide.  This is so that the bottom of the drawer is not flush to the face frame and there’s a little space to ensure that the drawer opens and closes smoothly.  You can measure this out, but I think it’s easier to use a spacer.  That will ensure that your spacing is exact for every drawer.  Make sure that your slide is level!

Next measure and attach the rear drawer track sockets:

After attaching the slides to the dresser frame, attach the drawer under-mount rails and test to make sure that your drawers are sliding in and out with no resistance.

Assembling and Attaching Drawer Faces

Now that we have the frame and the top built and the dresser drawers as well as their faces constructed, it’s time to assemble the entire project and attach the drawer faces to the drawers.

In this post I’m going to attach the drawer faces before attaching the dresser top because it’s easier to work with the drawers this way.  You’ll notice in some of these pictures that I’ve already stained this dresser.  When I was actually constructing it, I finished the dresser before I assembled it, but I’d prefer to cover finishing in a post by itself, so I’m skipping over that step right now.  I’ll come back to it in my final post.

Below you’ll see my drawer pull and a couple drill bits.  I’m drilling the hole in my face frame with the drill bit in the middle.  I will drill my hole in the front of the drawer using the larger 1/4″ drill bit.  The reason I’m doing this is to give the drawer face a little “wiggle room” when using the spacers to position it.  This will make more sense as you read through the post.

Because this plan has inlaid drawers, attaching the drawer faces to the drawers while maintaining consistent spacing between the faces and the face frame of the dresser can be a little tricky.  You need to make sure that when you drill holes in the drawer face and the drawer front (to line them up and attach the pull) that the face panel is already positioned relative to the drawer itself to fit.

There are lots of posts on the internet with methods to do this, but the method I’ll use is to slide each drawer into it’s place, use craft sticks (or tongue depressors) to space the drawer face in the frame and against the drawer, then use a hand drill to drill the hole in the drawer front.  That way, when I attach the pull, which basically holds the face panel to the drawer (along with glue & nails), it’s already positioned with the appropriate space.

The first step in attaching the drawer faces to the drawers is to drill holes for the drawer pulls.  It’s fine to use a hand drill for this, however in the picture I’m using a drill press.  Measure and drill in the exact center of your drawer faces.

Next, I’ll place the drawer into the slot, then position the drawer face with spacers all around it.

Holding the drawer in place, I’ll use my cordless drill to drill through the face panel hole through the actual drawer front, ensuring appropriate spacing.  Before I actually attach the drawer pull, I’ll take the drawer out and using a slightly larger 1/4″ drill bit, I’ll “overdrill” the drawer front, making the original hole a little larger.  This will allow me to make very slight adjustments to the drawer face even after I’ve attached it with the drawer pull.

Once I have the drawer face positioned precisely and the drawer pull attached, I’ll nail the face to the drawer front from the inside.

The result of this is a perfectly spaced inset drawer:

I’ll use this method with each drawer individually and mark each drawer to make sure that it goes in the right drawer slot.

Once all of the drawers are assembled with the drawer faces, it’s time to attach the top to the dresser.  I’ve intentionally waited to attach the top in order to have easier access to the drawers to attach the faces.  Now I’ll remove all the drawers and turn the dresser frame over and attach to the dresser top from underneath.  Don’t forget to pre-drill holes in the top frame supports to attach to the dresser top.

This also enables me to ensure that the frame is attached exactly in the center of the dresser top.  While the dresser is upside down, use pocket hole screws to attach the dresser side panels to the top and then use screws to attach the top through the top 3 1×2 supports.  Here are a couple of pictures to illustrate this:

Here’s the (almost) finished product.  My last step will be the final finish and a few coats of to ensure a durable finish before it goes in the boy’s room.