Dresser Redo

Now that I have finished doing shows until the spring, I've been spending time getting some things done around the house.

I had purchased a dresser at a yard sale back at the end of September. We needed storage for sheets, blankets, towels and duvets and my thought was it would be great for everything, except the duvets that is. I would be able to move things out of the storage cabinet into the dresser. This would free up space in the cabinet for the large items that had been piled up on an old trunk.

First, the dresser needed some rehab. It wasn’t in bad shape, just looked a little worn and the medium brown stain did nothing to highlight the detail on it. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before starting but this is what the case looked like:

Dresser case with the first

Touches of primer on the feet

Side view

Apologies for the quality of the photos. I was in a hurry to get to work and the sun was beaming right in.

The drawer fronts were finished first. After a serious sanding to roughen the surface they were primed with a good quality primer tinted pale grey, then 2 coats of chalk paint in a grey/blue colour were added. The top corners of each drawer were stenciled in deep charcoal with a pretty but not overly ornate detail, then sealed with a protective finish.

Waiting for drawer handles

Here’s the dresser case, just finished this afternoon in the same colours. The charcoal colour was used on the top and also to highlight the details along the front. More stenciling was done on the sides to bring the pattern around from the front. The colour is actually the same blue/grey with deep charcoal detail.

Handles are the final touch that's needed. I would like to replace the ones that came with the dresser because they really are not comfortable to use, however have not been able to find the right ones, partly because I’m trying to keep costs down. I don’t want my $35 yard sale find to become a high priced homemade redo. For now the old ones will go back on, at least that is until I get frustrated enough to find something else.

 

Even cleaned up they don’t look great

I’ll post a photo of the finished dresser in a few days.