Today we're going to talk about how to completely change furniture with legs. Perhaps you have a cabinet that sits too low and would function so much better if it had more height. Maybe you have a side table with great bones but it just isn't your style.

I'm going to share three examples where adding legs completely transformed the look and style of a piece and/or gave it a new purpose. Why go out and buy new when you can upcycle what you already have.

How To Completely Change Furniture By Adding Legs

Today is Furniture Fixer Upper Day where I and five talented furniture painting friends come together to breath new life into six pieces of furniture. You can find links to the makeovers at the bottom of this post. Last month I gave an antique empire dresser from the 1800s a Red Holiday-Inspired Makeover.

We'll start with this mid-century modern cabinet. It was missing the legs when I got it and assume the originals were a tapered wood leg with metal leg caps (ferrules) common with mid-century modern furniture. By adding curvy legs, it completely transformed the style of the two-drawer cabinet from MCM to French Provincial and we're now using it as a nightstand.

Example 1: Mid-Century Modern Cabinet 

This is what the two-drawer laminate cabinet looked like before with the missing the legs.


Instead of replacing the legs with similarly tapered wood legs like the originals, we added these curvy cabriole legs found at a Habitat ReStore. They are a totally different style, color, and grain of the wood but once painted, one would never know this wasn't always a French Provincial nightstand.


Painted a matte metallic platinum silver with metallic gold highlights, it no longer looks anything like a mid-century modern cabinet. What a difference some curvy cabriole legs made on this piece!


Besides changing the legs, changing the hardware can make a dramatic difference too like these pretty turquoise floral knobs.


You can see the full makeover and tutorial of this metallic nightstand in my Small Mid-Century Modern Cabinet post.

I used this same metallic silver paint on a gorgeous Vintage Art Deco Waterfall Vanity too.

Example 2: Wooden Trunk Table

In this example by adding legs to a wooden case found at Goodwill, it was completely transformed into a lovely rustic trunk table by adding tall wooden legs found at Habitat ReStore.


By adding legs and painting them black, restoring the wood with some dark wax, and creatively covering the company logo on the front, the case was completely transformed into a useful piece of furniture.


You can find the step-by-step written tutorial along with a video tutorial in my How To Turn A Wooden Case Into A Trunk Table post. I also share a tutorial on how to line the case with an old shirt.

Example 3: Apothecary Cabinet

In this example, I show you how by adding tall wooden legs to an IKEA Moppe mini wood chest, it was transformed into a useful apothecary cabinet for storage.


The legs and brackets were found at a salvage yard for $12.00 and the IKEA Moppe at a garage sale for next to nothing.


We use the apothecary cabinet to house our CD collection (yes, we're all old school and still have and listen to CD's) and labeled each drawer alphabetically by artist's last name.


Here is the simple IKEA Moppe mini chest now with legs, looking more like a piece of furniture rather than a storage box. It's so handy to have our CD collection in one place and displayed against a small wall in our living room, it is a statement piece that piques the curiosity of guests.

You can find the full tutorial on how we did it in my IKEA Moppe Hack Apothecary Cabinet post.


I hope this has inspired you to modify furniture that could be dressed up or provide more function if it had legs.


Now let's see how my talented friends in the Furniture Fixer Uppers group transformed these furniture pieces...

1. Girl In The Garage
2. Confessions Of A Serial DIYer
3. Petticoat Junktion
4. Prodigal Pieces
5. Just The Woods
6. The Interior Frugalista (that's me)

I share my projects at these inspiring link parties.