Not sure if this is a bug on your end or from forge.
Storage Drawers 1.8-2.1.8 Chameleon 1.8-0.10
Forge 1.8-11.14.3.1499+

Forge versions 1499 and up only place drawers with the front texture facing east. and only places them in a dark oak color. You can still interact with the drawers correctly.

From the forge changelog Build 1.8-11.14.3.1499:
glstillman: Fixed a bug with ExtendedBlockStates containing at least one IProperty and one IUnlistedProperty not allowing blocks to be placed.

Forge 1499 and up

Forge up to 1498

I don't understand why the particular line breaking my mod was added in that PR. However, it looks like I can return my data directly in getActualState instead of returning it in an extended state, so I can work around that.

Fixed in 2.1.9.