Friday, February 3, 2012

Before and After: My daughter's dresser

This dresser project stemmed from the very same problem as the last one I wrote about- growing children need bigger furniture. My daughter had outgrown the sweet little dresser I'd redone for her a couple of years ago, so while scouring the thrift stores and Craigslist for a replacement, I found this beat up old thing and decided to make it hers.




(It also has a mirror that goes with it but I was too lazy to put it back on for the "before" photos).
I loved the shape, size, details and hardware, but the paint job was AWFUL! Not only was it chipping like crazy and had tacky sprayed-on blue accents, but do you see all those little specks on it? Yeah, that's glitter. Who GLITTERS a piece of furniture??






I started with the top and stripped it down to bare wood. I think this was after two out of four applications of stripper. It took a LOT of work to get all of the paint off. It was almost like it'd been painted with plastic, it was sooo hard!

The drawers were next to be stripped and were much easier to do (thank goodness). The body of the dresser and the mirror got sanded to remove any flaking paint, then were given a couple of coats of lovely grayish blue paint-and-primer.



As happy as I am with how this dresser turned out, it doesn't really "go" with my daughter's other furniture. Everything else in her room is white, which makes the dresser kind of stand out. I'm thinking soon it will be time to upgrade her other furniture as well.



Still, she really needed a bigger dresser and this one fit the bill nicely. While it has fewer drawers, it still has way more space for her clothes than the other one provided. No more stuffing and shoving and/or leaving clothes in laundry baskets because they just don't fit.
(Please excuse the messy shelves. The girl's a pack rat, just like her Mama.)

6 comments:

Ingard said...

I really like the two tones on the piece... very nicely done as usual

Julie Spear said...

I love that dresser - I (like lots of others, it seems) found your blog, from the lettered sign post on Pinterest... GLAD I did! I really like your blog!
Can I ask a quesitons? what kind of paint do you use on your furniture pieces? I looked at a bunch of posts and can't see where it says, or maybe it doesn't but I dont think I overlooked it anyway... (I don;t wanna be one that asks questions that are answered IN the post) is it just regular wall paint n primer? or paint for wood? and when you say swipe of poly, does that mean polyurethane, because I thought that was liquid like paint... idk. just getting started in this and dont have money for expensivve chalk paint. any help you could give would be woderful!!!
Thanks, Julie

Breezy Brie said...

So pretty! Looks like a totally different piece of furniture!

Brie @ BreezyPinkDaisies

blogcommenting said...

I really like the two tones on the piece... very nicely done as usual

The buckaroo bride said...

What did you use for the top and the drawer fronts? I am looking to refurbish a dresser my husband and I picked up at an antique store. It is a solid piece but needs some love! We prefer stained vs painted as we love the natural look. (we have many barn wood made items from the different ranches we have lived on) I just is currently much redder tinted stain than any of our other furniture. I just have never redone a piece of furniture and am at a loss as what to use! Everything I find on refurbishing involves painting and covering up the natural beauty of the wood. Please Help!

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