I thought I had taken a photo of it before refinishing but turns out I did not. It used to look something like this:
Before:
After filling in all of the gauges and dings the old dresser had with wood putty, I repaired 2 of the legs with wood glue. Then the entire dresser was lightly sanded with medium grade sandpaper. I didn't spend too much time sanding. 20 minutes did the trick!
After wiping the dust off with a damp cloth, I primed the dresser with Zin stain cover primer. I used the latex primer (not oil based) because it's easier to clean and doesn't smell as much as the oil based version. I primed with 1 coat just to get the paint to adhere to the dresser.
Primed drawers drying in the driveway:
Primed dresser body:
Primed side of dresser:
By the time I was finished priming, it was dry enough to get the first coat of paint on. I used the white trim paint that is all over my house: Benjamin Moore Dove White (or is it White Dove?) in a semi-gloss.
A nifty trick to get the paint to roll and paint on smoothly is to use Floetrol:
For the blue color of the drawers, I used Benjamin Moore Wyeth Blue cut in half. I added half of the Dove White to create a less intense blue. I used the leftover can from painting my front door Wyeth Blue.
I thought I could get away with 2 coats of paint on top of the primer, but to get the coverage I wanted, I ended up with 3 coats of the Dove White. 2 coats of the Wyeth Blue on the drawers was fine.
I thought about getting new hardware for the drawers, but I kind of liked the hardware the old dresser came with so I shined it up with Brasso:
This stuff is very easy to work with and made the old pulls look like new!
They look silver here, but they are brassy in real life.
I put the dresser in my dining room because I need some storage since I sold the sideboard. I will be revealing the new dining room eventually (you can sneak a peek at the table, below). For now, I'm enjoying this revamped old dresser!
:)
