Flea Market Dresser That's Open For Business

Yep, if you haven't figured it out I have a dresser obsession. I love dressers of all shapes and sizes, but they have to be old, ugly and unloved. There's something about their versatility that inspires me. I think of all the things I could do with them or places I could put them. I wish I could keep every dresser I makeover, but that's just not possible now is it?? I'm kinda hoping someone will message me and say, "It's OK Melody you can keep them all!!" I know....cuckoo, right?

Mother's Day the 3 of us went to a local flea market. I've had some luck here in the past, but nothing that exciting. Well this particular day the flea market gods were on my side! We were there 45 minutes, including loading time and that's another story all together, and we only went in about 3 rows before I spent all the money I'd brought! It was one of those days I wanted to yell, "SCORE!!!" I didn't yell it out loud, but in my mind I did!

I found a dresser that needed some love, but there was something about the shape I loved. The reason I loved it so much was the fact I have one just like it at home. I've had the dresser since I was a kid. My dresser is still sitting in the guest bedroom with "FIX ME!" written all over it. I bought the flea market dresser instead, makes sense, huh? On the way home I had already figured out what I wanted to do to it and couldn't wait to get started.

Here it is once I got it home....and well maybe just maybe I forgot to take a picture before I started sanding and painting.

You can see here, the top is a mess. I have no idea why it looks so odd. It was raised up in some areas too, but with some sanding it leveled out nicely.

Because the top of the dresser was such a mess I couldn't stain it. It felt so strange to paint an entire dresser and not do any staining.

Here are 2 of the 3 drawers. You can see the hardware didn't match so I knew I had to fix that, also the drawers were a different color stain than the body of the dresser.

From the pictures below you can see I decided to go with a dark grey color from Annie Sloan called Graphite. It's her version of 'black'. I really like this color a lot so expect to see it more! I painted the top and the drawers in 2 coats of Graphite and the body of the dresser in my favorite Old White. I have to mention here that the paint on top isn't dry in this picture.

I've had lots of people ask me about waxing the paint. I took this picture to show you how the wax changes the paint color. The clear wax doesn't really change the color, but it does give it a sheen and a bit more depth. The dark wax really can change the color a lot. This picture shows you the difference. One half of the drawer is waxed with just clear and the other half has clear and dark wax on it. Look at how much darker the paint gets and how much depth it has. It really brings out all the texture too.

Two coats of paint, and some clear wax on the body, some clear and dark wax on the drawers and top and it was done! Thankfully today we had a break in the weather and I was able to get some nice outdoor pictures. The dresser is on casters so it was easy to move around by myself.

You can see I changed the knobs.....more on that in a minute.

I only lightly distressed the body of the dresser and didn't do any distressing on the dark parts. I really love how it all turned out!

Now you can see a bit of the new knobs.....in case you can't see it they say "OPEN" on them.

From the curves, to the legs, to the knobs....I really do love this one.

Here you can see the light distressing up close.

And the cute knobs!!! I bought these about a year ago and the dresser I'd bought them for was all wrong for them so I put them away. When I figured out my color scheme on this one I knew I had to use these knobs!! They are a nice ceramic knob with a bit of shine to them.

You can see the top looks a lot better with some paint and wax.

Is it just me or is this a great color?!!!

I had to get one picture in here of the legs...really love the curves.

I still haven't figured out what I'm doing with this one. Most likely it will end up being sold. I really love it, but don't have the space for it. I think it would look great in an entryway! If you're interested in adding this dresser to your home let me know.

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