The price of used furniture has really gone up in my neck of the woods and unfortunately, the price people will pay for restyled furniture has not!  I’ve really had to search to find any dressers under $50.  I like the smaller pieces like this tired old thing I found at my local antique mall.  She was only $30 but she was pretty filthy and beat up so I knew I was in for a lot of patching, gluing, and sanding before I could even think about painting her.   

The hardware was not original to the piece so I removed it and saved it for use on another project.  After a thorough cleaning I made a few repairs.  I also filled in the grooved detail that ran across the drawers since I had a stencil design I wanted to apply to the drawer fronts and I knew that would be easier on a smooth surface.

When I’m painting a light color over a piece that had a dark, mahogany stain I like to seal the entire piece with shellac, even if I’ve sanded most of the old finish off.  This seals the wood and keeps any remaining pigment from the old stain from bleeding through the new paint.  I also applied two coats of stain blocking primer before beginning on my basecoat. 

I used a 50/50 custom blend of Home Decor French Linen and Rustoleum Chalked Linen White.  When that dried, I stenciled a flourish design on the drawer fronts, alternating between Rustoleum Country Grey and Linen White.   I lightly sanded the design to distress it.  I clear coated the entire dresser with Rustoleum Chalked Clear Matte and then applied dark wax around the drawer edges to age them.  I faux distressed the dresser  using dark paint on a block of wood to create the chipped paint look on some of the edges and a little dark wax on some of the edges and corners.

The insides of the drawers are painted with latex flat paint.  The color is Brindle by Nautica.  Sometimes, painting the outer sides of drawers can make them harder to slide open.  Since the drawers on this old dresser were already a snug fit, I opted to sand the sides and edges of the drawers to freshen up the wood without painting them.  It might not be quite as “finished” looking as it would if they were painted but the drawers slide easily in and out which I think is more important!

The decorative lock escutcheons on the drawers are made of wood and were hardly noticeable when they were stained the same color as the dresser.  I painted them with some acrylic craft paint I had on hand, Apple Barrel brand in Burnt Umber.  I topped that with Folk Art Brushed Metal paint in Brushed Bronze to give them a metallic appearance.  I bought the drawer pulls at my local Menards store.

I hope you like Eve.  Merry Christmas everybody! 🎄