White And Neglected Craigslist Dresser Turned Green Beauty

I think I've mentioned a few times before that I have a love for Craigslist. I've been very lucky to meet some amazing people who have some great stuff they need to get rid of on Craigslist. A couple of weeks ago I met a lady whose business it is to sell furniture she acquires via Craigslist. She was very kind and even delivered 2 pieces I bought from her. One of the pieces I bought was a white, antique dresser that of course needed a lot of love, but it was my kind of dresser. The style is one I'm always drawn to with the longer legs and bowed top. I don't know what it is, but I love this style of dresser. Yes, I really do have a dresser addiction.

Here it is when it was dropped off at the house. The drawers needed some work inside, but other than that it was in OK shape. The paint was peeling in places, but that was something I could deal with.

I was pretty unsure if the top would be able to be stained or not. I didn't know if the spot in the middle was water damage. The dresser had leaves and things in it so I figured it might have been stored outside at some point.

Now this is one of the things I LOOOOVEEEE about this dresser...the sides! I love the slats, also the fact that the top looks like it's two tops stacked on top of each other.

First thing I tackled was the top. If I could stain the top, that would determine what I would do with the rest of the dresser. I stripped it down then gave it a good sanding and I was pleasantly surprised that the wood looked fantastic!!

You can also see here that I had to sand the dresser down a lot more than I would have liked on the sides. Whoever painted this originally put a coat of white paint over the varnish so it didn't adhere very well.

Here's the top after I put a coat of Red Mahogany stain on the wood. I decided it wasn't dark enough and too red for what I had planned for the body of the dresser.

See?? The top is way too red!

You can see here that I decided to go with green! YES GREEN!! I don't really like green, but I do love this shade of green. I decided to go with the same color I used on my kitchen table redo. This dresser is staying with me and going in our dining room. We have a red, green and taupe Pottery Barn area rug in the dining room, so the green will look great in there.

I currently have a HUGE china cabinet in the dining room that is way, way, way too big for the space. The cabinet has drawers on the bottom that my Son keeps his arts and crafts supplies in, then the top I use for displaying things. It worked great in our old house, but not in this one. So when the cabinet leaves, I hope very soon, I will put the dresser in it's place to hold the craft supplies.

Here's the dresser with 3 coats of DIY chalk paint. The color is called Happy Camper and it's by Behr. I had the paint leftover so I decided to make the chalk paint I used for the kitchen table. I do like this recipe, but I still prefer Annie Sloan.

To get the top the color I wanted I put Jacobean on top of the Red Mahogany stained wood, then topped it with 2 coats of dark Annie Sloan wax. It turned out to be exactly the color I wanted!

On the drawers and the body, I lightly distressed on the high points and along the edges of the drawers, then topped it off with a coat of clear wax and a coat of dark wax.

Best part about this dresser was it had all the hardware. It had been replaced with some new knobs at some point, but I liked the shape and just gave them a spray of Oil Rubbed Bronze and they were perfect!

Here it is all done up and finished!!

I really like how the brass key holes show up now that the paint has been removed!!

The sides are my favorite part. I like how the dark wax gives the slats even more dimension.

Today was a perfect picture day so I had to get this dresser outside to take its picture. It was tricky trying to maneuver it on my own, but I did it! :-)

Here you can see the cute knobs and that brass keyhole!

For a girl who doesn't really like green, I do love this shade of green. I think it looks great with the dark brown stain on the top, plus the dark wax gives it a lot more depth.

As usual, I'm glad I stained the top. The wood is gorgeous and needed to be shown off.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

White And Neglected Craigslist Dresser Turned Green Beauty