Pretty In Pink....Elle's Dresser

A few weeks ago I bought a dresser on one of my favorite tag sale sites on Facebook. I loved this dresser because it had the lines, long curvy legs and details I always look for in a great piece of furniture. At the time I didn't know what I would do to the dresser, but I knew I had to have it. The same weekend I picked this dresser up a friend of mine came by to drop off a piece of furniture for me to work on for her mother (Biggest Challenge Yet). While she was here she was talking about how she needed a dresser for her Daughter Elle's room. They're moving into a much larger house from a small townhouse so they have lots of fun decorating to do! I showed her the dresser I had just picked up and she loved it. Over the next few weeks we talked about what color she wanted to paint Elle's bedroom, the color of the bedding, etc. Elle's bedding inspired me to do another dresser the Cherry Blossom Dresser. The entire time I was painting the cherry blossom dresser I was thinking about this next dresser and was excited about the fun I could have with it!

Here's what the dresser for Elle looked like when I brought it home.

The dresser was not in the best of shape as you can see. The veneer was peeling off in parts, the top was a mess, but it still had all those fantastic details.

Even with all the dirt, peeling veneer and scratches it's a beautiful piece of furniture.

Each one of the drawers had to be glued and clamped because they were falling apart. Then the veneer had to be filled and sanded in quite a few spots.

There were a lot of places around the knobs that had to be sanded down. There was some gunky old varnish, which would have been fine to add texture, but that wasn't the look I was going for. This was going to be different.

I sanded down the scratches, nicks and gunky veneer to give it a smooth surface.

The top needed a lot of sanding because it had a ton of gouges in it.

My friend had originally wanted the dresser to be distressed so I started out painting a different color underneath so it would show up with the distressing. We had decided the body would be Annie Sloan Pure White and the drawers would be Antoinette. I was THRILLED because having a boy I never get to play with pink! This was exciting for this girlie girl.

Then as I painted my first coat of the paint I was disappointed. The stain was bleeding through. I learned something very, VERY valuable at my Annie Sloan workshop. When painting stained furniture from the 30's and 40's use a coat of Zinsser Shellac to seal up the stain and prevent bleed through. For some reason the stain used during this time always bleeds through paint. Do you know how many times I have painted something and then had this happen with the stain?? I wish I'd known this before because I put 2 coats of primer on top of the 2 coats of Annie Sloan paint before I got the bleed through to stop. Then I did another 2 coats. YEP....6 coats of paint! Funny thing is, I enjoyed every pink moment! This paint made me happy :-)

Like I mentioned before my friend had wanted to dresser distressed and I agreed that would be a great look, until I was finished painting. I knew I wanted to paint the insides of the curves on the outside of the drawers in Pure White to pop off the Antoinette. Once I was done doing that I couldn't bring myself to distress it. I love to distress furniture, but something told me, "DON'T DO IT!" So I listened to what I hope was my gut and not me losing my mind.

Here it is all painted and coated in clear wax. The only thing she is missing are her jewels or what some might call her drawer hardware.

I painted the legs in the Antoinette color as well, just to show them off.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how the details in the drawers pop now! It's such a pretty and feminine dresser it makes me feel all girlie inside.

Today we had a break in our monsoon type weather and I was able to take her outside, put on her jewels and give her a nice photo shoot. She's absolutely breathtaking don't you think??

The whole time I was painting this dresser I knew I wanted to stage it in a Parisian theme. Today I had to stop at Home Goods to pick something up and just happened to stop in at the lighting section. This is a bad thing for me because I have a bad lamp addiction. I found this Eiffel Tower lamp and had to have it (sorry honey!). It's Perfect for this dresser and my new Make Up Table!

This dresser is made for a Princess and I think my Elle is a very lucky little Princess!

The drawer hardware is just what this dresser needs and really compliments the Antoinette pink.

Maybe it was the fact the name of the paint is so French, but last week I found this scented liner paper at Home Goods and knew it would be the perfect French finishing touch.

I can't get enough of those legs or the casters!

Every moment of redoing this dresser was fun for me. Knowing there's a sweet little girl that's going to enjoy having this in her room made it even more special. This is definitely a dresser made for a Princess. I hope Elle loves it as much as I do. I really hope there's more painting with pink in my future!

Let me know what you think. I love all your comments and I do take the time to respond to each one.

LINKING TO:

http://myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/

http://www.tipjunkie.com/homemade-projects-6-26/