Old Dresser Transformation

I picked up an old dresser from Salvation Army about 2 years ago.  It has been sitting in my garage collecting dust....until now!

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:

 

 Now it looks like this:

 

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:

 As you can see, the primer doesn't cover the brown stain of the dresser completely.  The purpose of the primer is to get the paint to stick well to the dresser.  I decided to prime and paint the back of the dresser too, although you may decide to skip the back.  If you won't see it, why paint it?

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:

 Floetrol is a paint conditioner and it helps with less noticeable brush strokes.  The paint job is much smoother as a result.

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!

:)