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HOW TO UPGRADE FAST FURNITURE
Oct 3, 2025
✨ Ready to give your budget pieces a glow-up? In this video, I’m showing you 6 easy and affordable ways to upgrade fast furniture (a.k.a. those quick-to-assemble, budget-friendly pieces we all have in our homes). From swapping out hardware to adding fresh finishes, these simple updates will take your cheap furniture from basic to beautiful. Whether you’re decorating your first apartment, working with a tight budget, or just want to make the most of what you already own, these furniture makeover ideas will give your space a high-end look without the high-end price tag. 💡 Don’t toss it—upgrade it! With just a few tweaks, you can turn inexpensive finds into pieces you’ll actually love. | CHAPTERS | 00:00 Intro 00:57 Add Feet 02:37 Add Hardware 03:56 Add Molding 07:09 Paint or Stain 09:08 Contact Paper 11:05 Stencils 12:49 Outro | BLOG POST | How To Upgrade Fast Furniture - https://diannedecor.com/blog/advice-tips/how-to-upgrade-fast-furniture/
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0:03
Hi, it's Lindsay Diane from diancor.com.
0:06
In this video, let's talk about how to
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upgrade the look of fast furniture. Fast
0:12
furniture, unfortunately,
0:15
comes with very few bells and whistles,
0:18
so to speak. There isn't a lot of detail
0:22
work that goes on with these things.
0:24
Usually, you have flat cabinet fronts or
0:27
doors. You may or may not even have door
0:30
pulls. You know, these are pieces of
0:33
furniture that are affordable and that's
0:36
great because a lot of us need that, but
0:38
at the same time, they lack a lot of
0:40
distinction and character that we get
0:43
from some of the older handcrafted
0:45
pieces. So, in this video, we're going
0:48
to talk about six ways to upgrade your
0:50
fast furniture to give it some more
0:52
character, some more dimension, and a
0:54
unique look. Let's get started. Number
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one is to add feet.
1:01
Adding feet to furniture is one of the
1:03
easiest ways to elevate its style and
1:05
give it a custom high-end feel. Most
1:08
fast furniture pieces sit flat on the
1:11
floor, which makes them look generic,
1:14
heavy, and just uninteresting. Adding a
1:18
set of wooden, metal, or even acrylic
1:21
feet to the base of your fast furniture
1:24
piece will instantly transform the
1:27
overall silhouette, creating a more
1:29
elegant and intentional look. Furniture
1:32
feet come in a variety of styles, and
1:34
they're pretty easy to get your hands
1:37
on. Stores like Home Depot, Lowe's,
1:40
Wayfair, Walmart, and Amazon all sell
1:44
furniture feet. They often just screw
1:47
into the base. So, if you have feet on
1:50
your existing piece, you can remove
1:53
those feet and replace them with ones
1:55
that you purchase that are going to give
1:58
you that custom look that you're looking
1:59
for. Or if you don't have feet on your
2:03
existing piece, all you really need to
2:05
do is bore a little bit of a pilot hole
2:08
in there and then screw in those feet
2:11
and you're good to go. The installation
2:13
of furniture fee is straightforward and
2:15
doesn't require any special carpentry
2:18
skills. A dresser, sideboard, or coffee
2:21
table with newly added legs gains
2:24
height, dimension, and a more custom
2:28
feel, all without having to completely
2:31
replace your piece. So, think about
2:33
adding feet to your fast furniture to
2:35
give it an upgraded look. Number two is
2:38
to add hardware. Now again, just like
2:41
the furniture feet, hardware sometimes
2:44
comes with your piece and it sometimes
2:47
does not. More often than not, what
2:50
you're going to get with fast furniture
2:52
is cheap plastic hardware. Things that
2:55
look like they're supposed to be, you
2:58
know, a real metallic, but they're
3:00
really just a painted plastic piece.
3:03
These are very easy to swap out because
3:05
the holes have already been bored for
3:07
you. All you need to do is find some
3:10
poles or knobs that you really like and
3:13
that are going to help you express your
3:16
own personal style and really give your
3:18
piece an upgraded look. Again, you can
3:21
buy these at Home Depot, Lowe's, Amazon.
3:24
Amazon is a really great place to find
3:26
some nice hardware and it's affordable.
3:29
You know, when you're talking about
3:31
hardware pulls for drawers and cabinets,
3:34
think they're one anywhere between like
3:36
maybe 150 and $5 a piece, depending on
3:39
how fancy you want to get. But for the
3:41
most part, they're relatively
3:42
inexpensive. Usually in the $2 range per
3:45
pull. So, if you have, let's say, a desk
3:48
in your office and you've got three or
3:50
four drawers, this is a really simple,
3:53
inexpensive upgrade for your desk.
3:57
Number three is to add molding or trim
4:00
to your fast furniture. This works
4:03
especially well when we're talking about
4:06
bookcases,
4:08
cabinets,
4:09
and dressers.
4:12
Adding molding is easier than ever
4:15
because we now have peel and stick
4:18
molding solutions. Before, I would have
4:22
advised that you go to Home Depot and
4:24
get some pieces of trim that you can add
4:26
to maybe drawer fronts or you can add to
4:30
your cabinet door front. But now, you
4:33
really don't have to do that at all. You
4:35
can just get some of the peel and stick
4:37
molding, assuming it's in a color that
4:40
you want to go for. So, if you have
4:42
something that's a traditional color,
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like you have your dresser is a matte
4:47
black or a white or maybe some sort of a
4:50
wood tone stain, you can usually find a
4:52
peel and stick molding that already
4:54
matches that color. If you have a
4:57
specialty color, let's let's say you
4:58
have like a navy blue or a hunter green
5:00
or something like that, you're probably
5:02
going to want to go with a wooden
5:05
molding um because I'm not sure that the
5:08
peel and stick options are really
5:09
paintable. It may say that in the
5:12
product description or it may not. But I
5:14
would go with just a wood, you know, get
5:17
some trim from Home Depot. It's going to
5:18
come in a big long piece and you're just
5:21
going to cut it down and, you know, glue
5:24
it on to the front of your dresser
5:27
drawers or your cabinet drawers. Let it
5:29
dry and then go ahead and give the whole
5:31
thing a full coat of paint so that
5:33
everything sort of looks seamless and
5:36
looks as if it was built that way.
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Molding or trim is a fantastic way to
5:41
add dimension and interest to your fast
5:43
furniture pieces. This is a project
5:46
again that anyone can do. It may require
5:49
a little bit more time and patience
5:51
depending upon how intricate you want to
5:54
get with your design. Now, you could
5:56
very easily just sort of create like an
5:58
inner border along a drawer or if you
6:02
really wanted to get fancy, you can do
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like uh molding pieces that go
6:07
vertically along your drawers to really
6:10
create a nice ribbed texture. I've seen
6:12
a lot of people do this on Pinterest,
6:14
but whatever you choose, know that this
6:17
is something that you can do at home.
6:20
You can do it yourself. You don't need
6:21
to hire a professional to do it, and it
6:23
will dramatically change the look of
6:26
your fast furniture piece. Crown molding
6:29
is also a popular option to give a
6:32
bookshelf or a bookcase a builtin look.
6:36
So, I see a lot of people do this with
6:38
the Billy bookcases from IKEA. They sort
6:42
of line them up. You can add a trim on
6:45
the seam where the two bookcases meet.
6:47
If you have like a double set of
6:49
bookcases or a triple set of bookcases,
6:52
you would add a little sort of flat trim
6:54
piece there to hide that seam and then
6:57
let it go all the way up to the ceiling
6:58
and add sort of a crown molding piece at
7:00
the top and it will make it look like
7:02
it's built right into the wall. It's a
7:05
very cool way to upgrade a piece of fast
7:08
furniture. Number four is paint and
7:11
stain. By far, paint is going to be one
7:15
of the fastest ways to transform the
7:17
look of your fast furniture. When it
7:21
comes to fast furniture, usually your
7:23
color options are very, very limited.
7:27
You're going to have maybe two different
7:30
um stains of wood stains. And now these
7:34
are probably again not going to be real
7:36
wood stains or wood grain that you're
7:39
getting. This is going to be a veneer.
7:41
And it may come in something that's like
7:44
a midtone like a walnut. And it may come
7:46
in something like an espresso, something
7:48
a deeper wood tone. And then you may
7:51
have a white or a gray or a black. Those
7:56
are usually the only colors that you see
7:58
when it comes to fast furniture. It
8:00
doesn't really matter what it is,
8:02
whether it's a dresser, a crib, a
8:05
bookcase, you rarely see brands expand
8:10
outside of those maybe five colorways.
8:14
Now, with a can of paint, whether it's
8:17
your rolling on paint or your spray
8:19
painting, the sky is the limit. There
8:21
are so many different paints to choose
8:23
from. There are different finishes. So,
8:26
you can go with something matte. You can
8:28
go with something with a gloss on it.
8:29
You could even go with something that's
8:31
textured if you really wanted to. This
8:33
is a very, very easy way to dramatically
8:36
change the look of a fast furniture
8:38
piece. Think about repainting it or
8:41
restaining it. Restaining will um
8:45
require a little bit more work. Again,
8:47
you're only going to be restaining if
8:49
you have real wood to work with. Odds
8:52
are you probably don't with fast
8:54
furniture. So, your option is going to
8:56
be paint or to cover it with some
8:58
contact paper, which we'll talk about in
8:59
just a minute. But creating a new finish
9:02
for your piece, whether it's paint or
9:04
stain, is a great way to upgrade your
9:07
fast furniture. Number five is contact
9:09
paper. Contact paper has really taken
9:14
the world by storm. It's been around for
9:17
a long, long time, but it just seems to
9:19
be getting better and better. There are
9:21
more options out here. And when it comes
9:25
to covering furniture, it's really
9:28
become very, very simple to do. You can
9:31
find contact paper on Amazon. You can
9:33
find it at Walmart. You can find it at
9:36
Dollar Tree. There are so many places to
9:39
find contact paper in different styles.
9:42
Any type of wood grid you could possibly
9:44
imagine, they will have a contact paper
9:46
for it. Any type of marbling, they will
9:50
have a contact paper for it. You can
9:52
even get a contact paper that mimics
9:55
metal. It will give you a mirror finish
9:57
or a stainless steel finish. You can
9:59
have pieces that have, you know,
10:01
patterns, marbling, speckling. There's
10:05
really the sky is the limit when it
10:06
comes to contact paper. So, essentially,
10:09
all you're really going to do is you're
10:11
going to take the time to either cover
10:13
just the top of your dresser or desk or
10:18
whatever piece of furniture you have.
10:20
You can cover just the top of it. You
10:22
can cover it completely. You could
10:24
choose to maybe even cover just the
10:26
sides of your drawers to have a sort of
10:28
peekaboo design effect. This is a great
10:30
way to customize your fast furniture.
10:34
But for sure, whatever you do with the
10:37
contact paper is going to be removable.
10:39
So, don't be afraid to give it a try.
10:42
This is a peel and stick thing. If it
10:44
doesn't turn out well, you can always
10:46
pull it right back off again. It's no
10:48
problem. Overall, this is a really easy
10:52
project to do. Even if you're not a
10:54
crafter, covering a desktop or um you
10:58
know, a shelf with contact paper to give
11:01
it a new look is a great way to upgrade
11:04
fast furniture. And last but not least
11:06
is stencils. Now, this goes handinhand
11:10
with painting your fast furniture. You
11:13
can use stencils to create a really
11:15
beautiful design on the front of dresser
11:19
drawers or cabinet doors. This is
11:23
something that I've seen a lot of people
11:25
do to create a faux bone inlay effect.
11:30
So, what you would do is you would paint
11:33
your cabinet, you know, let's say a
11:36
matte black, right? And then you would
11:38
go in with a like pearlescent
11:42
white paint that has a little bit of
11:44
shimmer and iridesence to it that would
11:47
mimic the look of like a pearls kind of
11:50
shimmering when it catches the light.
11:52
And then what you do is you go in with
11:54
your stencil and you put your stencil
11:55
down and you're just going to use like a
11:58
sponge brush and dab over and create
12:01
this really beautiful patterns look so
12:05
that you have transformed the front or
12:09
even the entire furniture piece so that
12:12
it has this stencileled pearlescent look
12:15
to it and it makes it look as though it
12:17
has like a bone inlay. It's a really
12:20
really cool project. I do hope to try
12:22
this one day myself. But either way, a
12:26
stencil is a great way to add a little
12:29
bit more visual interest to your fast
12:30
furniture piece. Whether you want to go
12:32
for that bone inlay look or not, you can
12:35
use just a standard paint, a standard
12:38
color to create a really beautiful
12:40
pattern or design to upgrade the look of
12:43
your fast furniture and give it a unique
12:45
look that you're not going to find
12:47
anywhere else. That's it for this video.
12:50
Those are the six ways that you can
12:52
upgrade the look of your fast furniture.
12:56
I hope you found this video helpful. If
12:58
you did, please give it a like and
13:00
consider subscribing to my channel.
13:02
Don't forget to visit me at diancor.com.
13:04
I post all about home decoring ideas and
13:07
DIY projects over there. I thank you so
13:10
much for watching and I'll see you in
13:11
the next one. Bye.
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[Music]
#Home & Interior Decor
#Home Furnishings
#Home Improvement