Stylish and practical: a chest of drawers with handles made from toy animals, perfect for children

The handles for the drawers should be positioned centrally and not too far up – the animals need some space or the drawers could get stuck. Measure the position first and mark it with a pencil. Then use the cordless combi drill and wood drill bit to make a hole in each drawer. Caution: the material may be relatively soft, so don’t press down too hard. Use screw clamps to fix the drawer to a table or work bench to prevent it from slipping.

Before you paint the furniture, you should carefully sand it down. Note: the veneer is not very thick, so an abrasive sponge is all you need for the job. You can sand down the holes with a bit more force on the interior side. Watch out for splinters of wood – you don’t want your child to hurt themselves.

Paint the drawers with the blackboard paint. To do this, put some of the paint in the paint tray, dip the roller in it and then apply a good coat. Blackboard paint is fairly viscous and dries quickly – so you'll need to work speedily and, ideally, use small amounts of paint. You will probably need to apply two coats to completely cover the drawers. Let the paint dry in between coats. You can find more information about drying times on the tin.

Now fill the paint spray system with the paint/primer and apply it to the chest of drawers. Make sure you put on your work gloves, face mask and safety glasses before you start. To avoid getting the paint anywhere else, it’s important to cover the floor and, if necessary, surrounding furniture and walls. Use a paintbrush or the roller to paint the narrow sides of the chest, to avoid getting too much paint on the rails. Alternatively, you can cover these with masking tape before using the paint spray system on the wood. Allow the furniture to dry before applying a second coat.

Whilst the paint is drying, you have time to prepare the handles for your chest of drawers. This is how it works: drill one hole in each animal and insert a screw insert. Then paint the animal in a colour of your choice so that it’s ready to screw on to the drawer later on.

First mark up where to drill the hole in the toy animal – ideally in the centre, and (of course) from underneath. Choose a place with lots of “meat” on it. Drill a hole approx. 1.5 cm deep in the animal (use a piece of masking tape to mark the depth on the drill), then insert the screw insert and tighten it. The hole and screw insert won’t be visible once you’ve attached the handles to the chest of the drawers.

Caution: the material that the animal is made from is probably softer than you think, so don’t apply too much pressure when drilling or screwing.

Once you’ve prepared the toy animals with the holes and screw inserts, you can paint them. You can spray them all the same colour, or in different ones. We decided to go with a specific colour pallet and painted the animals in electric blue, light blue, light green and, finally, bright green (from bottom to top). Of course, you can choose whichever colour scheme you like and put the animals in any order you want.

Your very own, unique chest of drawers is almost ready. All that’s left to do now is attach your animal handles. Once the paint is dry, screw the animals onto the drawers. Once you’ve mounted the animals, put the drawers back in the chest and put it in position. If you want, you can even make a start on decorating the drawers with some chalk. Voilà: your stylish yet practical chest of drawers is finished!

To child-proof your chest of drawers, it’s best to attach it to the wall. First, measure and mark up where holes are needed on the chest of drawers, and then replicate this on the wall.

A detection device can help you make sure you’re not drilling into spots with metal or electric cables behind them. Simply move it across the wall, placing your other hand on the wall for grounding. Take off any rings or jewellery beforehand to avoid interfering with the device. If the light turns red or flashes red, you should avoid drilling in that spot. Once you’ve drilled your holes in the wall, mount the bracket on the furniture using two screws and the wall anchors.