Facebook Dresser....Inspired By Elle's Bedding

Facebook....Oh how I love you! Facebook has really evolved since I joined several years ago. Recently I happened upon a great page someone had come up with the idea to have a tag sale on Facebook! Now I know where I'm from we don't call them tag sales, we call them garage or yard sales, but whatever you call it, it's AWESOME! With the help of a friend I was able to score a dresser from a sweet lady in a town nearby. The Hubby and I went to pick up this dresser and were greeted by her adorable and friendly children. I also bought a great rocking chair from her as well, which I've been working on too.

OK so back to the dresser, wow I get sidetracked don't I? I start talking about furniture and my mind starts going in a million different directions! I shared a sneak peek of the dresser in my last blog post about the antique hydrangeas.

Here it is......I love the legs and the keyholes.

The dresser was in good condition. One of the drawers had a crack, but that was easily fixed with some wood glue and a clamp. One other drawer was falling part, but again some wood glue fixed it right up!

You can see the top was a bit of a mess. It had old varnish that was coming off in places and a long strip at the back where a mirror used to be attached that wasn't the same color. I stripped it down and gave it a good sanding and OMG, the top was BEAUTIFUL!!!

Here it is after the stripping and sanding. Every time I look at it I think of peacock feathers! Do you see peacock feathers too?? Or do I just have peacocks on the brain for some reason?

The dresser sat for a few days while I thought about what I wanted to do with it. Then it hit me on Friday what I wanted to do! A friend of mine had sent me a picture of her Daughter Elle's bedding. I loved the cherry blossom fabric and it made me think of something I had seen before.

My favorite blog out there in Blogland is Miss Mustard Seed www.missmustardseed.com. I remembered a dresser she had done that I fell in love with and it had a similar feel to Elle's bedding. Now I have to point out here that Miss Mustard Seed is a very talented artist and I am NOT so for me to do something even remotely similar was a real stretch and made this already nervous nelly even more nervous!

I didn't want to do an exact copy, but only use this piece and Elle's bedding as my inspiration. Since the top of this dresser was so incredible I had to leave it as is. All I did was sand it down a bit more and put some dark Annie Sloan wax on the top to protect it. I couldn't stand the thought of painting it or staining it. Then I decided the dresser would look great in a 2 tone paint. I painted the body in Annie Sloan Pure White and the drawers in Provence. I've seen so much turquoise around lately I felt it was the perfect choice. When I was done I liked how the colors all looked together with the top in the wood tone.

Here it is all painted. I distressed the body of the dresser first. You can see in this picture the drawers are just painted the flat Provence.

After that I grabbed my courage, my paint brushes and my Annie Sloan Pure White and Provence paint and went to town painting. Again, I am not an artist so this was a HUUUUGEEE stretch for me. After I painted my version of the cherry blossoms on the dresser in the white I went over it a bit in the Provence to give it some more dimension. Then I sanded it all down and distressed it. Finally I gave the entire dresser a nice coat of Annie Sloan clear wax. After I was done distressing, I decided this dresser needed some jewels! I went with these great knobs I found at Home Depot and I feel like they are just the jewelry this beauty needed.

Here she is all dressed up!!!

I really do love how this turned out. I know, I know I say this every time, but this one makes me really and truly SWOOON! I don't know if it's the color combination or what, but I love it.

Here you can really see the knobs. They are exactly what this dresser needed!

Isn't she pretty???

And would you just look at those legs?!!! Why on earth don't they make furniture like this anymore?!!

The lines, the curves and bends of old furniture make me smile from ear to ear.

Here are the keyholes up close....such a beautiful detail don't ya think??

It seems I end every blog post the same way talking about how much I love whatever piece of furniture I happen to be blogging about, but it's true! I do love each piece I work on! I give each piece the attention it deserves and then sometimes I have to send them out into the world and hope they find a wonderful place to grow old. This particular piece needs to stretch it's wings and find a new place to live. Unfortunately for me, there's no room here....although I did mention to the Hubby again that we could probably put this in the guest bedroom. HA HA HA That's my same line to him every time and little does he know that I'm actually serious! Lucky for me, there's lots more furniture to be redone in the world and unlucky for him....I'm on a mission!!!

LINKING TO:

http://www.itsoverflowing.com/2012/06/overflowing-with-creativity-62.html