How to Paint a Monogram on a Cabinet Drawer
Does the base cabinet in your bathroom have a drawer that doesn’t open, because the sink is behind it? There is no easy way to put a drawer pull on it, right?
Every bathroom base cabinet in my house has a top fake-out drawer. I can’t add a pull to it as the sink is directly behind it.
Perhaps you have this same situation in your bathroom – along with a curious kitty. If not, this decorative treatment could be done on the top drawer of a dresser or any piece of furniture.
So here is my decorative remedy the situation.
Plain Bathroom Drawer Fronts – BEFORE
This is a bathroom that my used to daughters share. I stenciled a design on each top drawer and made a monogrammed plaque for each with their initials.
Drawer Fronts AFTER

A subtle white accent to coordinate with the white mirrors, board and batten, and the floor. I also added a silver accent since the hardware on the other drawers are silver/chrome.
How to Stencil a Cabinet Drawer Front
supplies needed:
- Wood Plaques – craft store
- Tracing paper or transfer paper
- Pencil
- Fine tipped permanent marker
- Fine tipped paint brush
- 2 silver nail heads
- Liquid Nails or strong glue
- Paper plate and paper towel
1. Figure out the best placement for your stencil on the drawer. This stencil fit perfectly on my drawer so I did not have to match up edges or patterns – Easy.
2. Apply re-positionable craft glue to the back of your stencil. This will allow you to place the stencil completely flat against the surface you are working on without leaving any glue residue.
3. Place some masking tape to hold the stencil into position. See how the stencil is not flat against the drawer on the upper right hand side? Add some more re-positionable glue.
4. Make sure the stencil is flat against the drawer.
5. Squirt some Gloss Paint in Wedding Cake on a foam plate. Dab a Specialty foam Pouncer into the paint and then dab once on a paper towel to remove any excess. ( Note I will never use a bristle stencil brush again. This pouncer works like a charm.)
6. Start pouncing on the stencil. Load up more paint if needed until you have the stencil covered.
7. The pouncing action creates little air bubbles on the surface – no worries – they go away quickly.
8. Carefully remove the stencil and you will be rewarded with this-
How to Paint a Monogram on a Wood Craft Store Plaque
1. Sand plaque with sandpaper to remove any rough areas. Use a tack cloth to make sure you get all the dust off. Paint the plaque the same color as the drawer. Mine is Sherwin Williams Antique White. Let dry.
I do not own a Silhouette cutter to make myself a vinyl monogram to attach to the plaques so I need to do it the old fashioned way.
2. While the paint is drying, make a monogram using the software on your computer. I usually use Adobe Photoshop Elements or Microsoft Publisher to do this. If you don’t have these programs you can do it in Microsoft Word, but will have to make each letter separate (you can follow my complete tutorial here).
Print them out and then cut and paste them to form a monogram on a separate piece of paper. Measure your plaque and pick the size font that will fit. I used the font Cursif in 60 pts.
3. Trace and transfer the monogram onto your plaque using transfer paper and a pencil. I used transfer paper I had, but transfer paper is part of this new line and can be found with all the other Martha Stewart crafts products at Michaels.
4. Simply apply the graphite side of the transfer paper onto your plaque and place the image you want to trace on top. Use a pencil to trace the design.
5. Once you have traced over the entire image, remove and reveal. Carefully wipe away any graphite that may have smudged with a wet rag.
If you don’t have transfer paper – you can transfer the image using tracing paper.
Tape the monogram up on a window and trace it backwards, so the printed side is against the window.
Remove it and then center it on the plaque with the penciled side down. Tape it on and then go over the entire image with a pencil. Remove and if you applied enough pressure, the outline of your image will be on the plaque.
6. To paint the monogram – I used a permanent marker and then applied gloss black paint in Beetle Black with a very fine tipped brush.
7. Let it dry thoroughly before painting the sides. You don’t want to smudge it.
8. Using the long pointy tipped brush, paint the sides of the plaque. I used the Metallic finish in Sterling. I needed 3 coats and let each coat dry before adding the next coat.
9. This is where I found another use for the striping brushes. This brush was created to stripe and pattern. I found it the best brush I ever used to paint straight and evenly on tiny areas – like the borders on this plaque.
Since the brush is flat and has a straight side it glided right along the edge, plus the second brush right behind it cleaned up any excess. So cool! I used the larger one to paint the outside edge of the plaque and the smaller striping brush to paint the inner edge green.
10. Coat the entire piece with one coat of clear gloss sealer and let dry.
11. Mark the placement for the nail heads with a pencil and then press them into the wood. I covered the nail heads with cardboard and then pressed in so I would not put a dimple in the domed nail head.
12. Use Liquid Nails – in the little tube (not the big caulk gun type) to attach the plaque to the front of the drawer.
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