How to Decorate Furniture With Decorative Nails

Cover the front of your dresser with a dramatic, swooping line of decorative nails. Draw a long, looping design on the front of the dresser, continuing the lines from drawer to drawer, with a pencil. Drill a hole at the beginning of one of the lines and gently tap in a decorative nail. Repeat the drilling and tapping process until you've completely covered the template you drew.

Accent the front edges of a bookcase with decorative nails. Line up a level along the edge you want to decorate and draw a straight line across the surface with a pencil. Drill a hole and insert your first decorative nail at an outer corner and work toward the middle to the other corner. Decorate the front edges of individual shelves with contrasting nails for an eclectic look.

Outline your initials in decorative nails on a nightstand or dresser. Open a word-processing program on your computer and type your initials in a decorative or eclectic typeface. Enlarge the initials as much as you can so that they will still fit on a single sheet of paper. Print the initials. Line up a piece of tracing paper and trace the initials onto the tracing paper with a soft graphite pencil. Flip the tracing paper over and trace the initials on the other side with the pencil. Flip the tracing paper over again and tape it to the furniture where you want the initials. Trace over the initials with a colored pen or pencil to transfer the image to the furniture surface. Drill a hole at the end of one of the initials and begin installing the decorative nails.