Dresser Facelift

Time to make a switch to decorating a bit. The guest room needed a dresser, because, well, I need more clothes storage :) So to the Salvation Army I went. There was no way I was going to buy a brand new dresser for my guest room when the master bedroom set needs some help. Perfect opportunity to try refinishing something. I found this guy for $15 (their prices have since gone up a lot with new management - annoying!).

 

Had a kind of 70's feel to it. The second picture makes it look better than it was, but shows it in the space. It needed some serious refinishing, but the bones seemed solid. There's some very dated 50's wallpaper in that room, but it's the guest room, so if it gets changed it's probably going to be the last room to be done so I needed for work with it.

My inspiration was this Ikea hack by Ashleigh:

http://ashflynn.blogspot.com/2012/11/before-after-ikea-dressers.html

Before painting though, the refinishing. I sanded down the drawer fronts and all the flat surfaces with the power sander. All the little curved surfaces had to be done by hand which was tedious. There were also some spots that needed filler, which then had to dry and be resanded. Eventually, I had this:

Parts of this dresser has veneer on it, so I didn't want to try to get all the stain off. I chose a stain that was close that I hoped would blend well. I wiped it all down, and stained it with Early American by Varathane. It took 2 coats, and then 2 coats of poly. I always hand-sand with 400 grit in between coats to get a silky smooth finish. Turned out pretty well I think.

Then the same with the drawers, except they got painted with an ombre effect. I picked a green pallette that had one of the shades of green from the wallpaper leaves in it. I really like how it came out.

It still has a vintage feel, but meshes much better with the room now and has a bit more character I think.