Another Battered Craigslist Dresser Turned Beauty!

Last week while cruising Craigslist, like I do every day, I found a dresser that I had to have. It had some incredible details that I instantly fell in love with. I quickly emailed the seller and told them I wanted the dresser then waited while I crossed my fingers. Luckily for me the dresser was still available and the nice seller told me I could come on the weekend to pick it up.

When I picked it up with the Hubby and Hunter on Saturday I was thrilled! It was prettier in person than it was on the ad, but also a bit more beat up than I had expected. I'm never afraid of a beat up old dresser with peeling veneer, but I knew this one was going to be a lot of work.

Here it is when I got it home. The top had tons of water rings all over it. I wasn't sure if they would come out when I sanded.

Here you can see the peeling veneer. It was waaaay worse than I thought it was once I started to really look. I had to pull a lot off and fill with wood filler. You can also see in this picture the very cool drawer hardware. I always love it when a dresser has all the original hardware!

I have no idea what style this dresser is, if anyone knows please tell me! I'm still trying to learn my furniture styles and names. However, what I did know was the stain would definitely bleed through if I didn't try the trick I was taught with the Zinnsser Shellac. I coated the entire inside and outside of the body of the dresser and did the same thing with the drawers. I had heard this stuff even blocked smells and this dresser had a faint smell to it. I'm happy to report this stuff is the BOMB! Shellac is my new BFF :-)

I took the back trim piece off the top so I could stain the top. I was determined to get those water marks out!

With a bit of elbow grease I was able to get the water marks off and the top looked great sanded. I decided I wanted to not do the very edge in stain. I just wanted to stain the very top...just to be different.

I painted the entire body of the dresser in Paris Grey as well as the drawers. I knew I wanted the body to be white, but I did want some grey to pop through if I distressed it. I wanted the drawers in grey to contrast the white body.

Sooooo after I got a coat of Paris Grey on the dresser I realized I did NOT like this. Originally I had thought I'd do the dresser in French Linen and Pure White by Annie Sloan. French Linen is one of my favorite Annie Sloan colors. I didn't go with my gut and decided I needed to do something different. I learned a very valuable lesson....always go with my gut feeling on a piece!

Two coats of Pure White on the body and it was done...or so I thought :-)

I stained the top in Dark Walnut by Minwax, then put on a coat of Kona by Rustoleum to get the color I was going for.

I knew I was going to paint the entire drawer, inside and out so I thought I would give it a pop of color by using Annie Sloan's newest color Florence. I absolutely adore this color!! I really want to do a dresser in this color with white accents....swoon!

You can see here the drawers are still grey. I decided to paint he inside of the drawers first before I painted the drawer fronts in the French Linen. I also thought maybe, just maybe I might change my mind...HA HA HA.

OK, so that's all the progress pictures you're going to see. This dresser really gave me a run for my money. I went in one direction, then another....sometimes a piece of furniture just talks to me. This one did just that. I originally wasn't going to distress this piece at all, but then felt it needed it. I also had originally thought I was going to keep the hardware the same and not spray them, but when I started to clean them I realized that wasn't going to be the case. The paint was coming off in parts so they needed a good spray of Oil Rubbed Bronze by Rustoleum. Once I painted on the French Linen I realized some of the veneer was bubbling up even more. Back to the pulling up the bad veneer, filling with wood filler and sanding. I had to do this on a few more spots until everything was finally fixed.

I then realized the bottom piece that had the cut-outs needed to be the French Linen color as well. I got out my paint and brushes again and went back to it. Finally, the dresser was ready for a coat of clear wax and I was DONE!! I worked on this dresser for way too many hours and it tested my patience for sure, but then I said to myself, "I really do love what I do!" Even though it was frustrating when I saw the end result I realized it ended up looking exactly how I had envisioned originally and I couldn't be happier!!!

Here is the finished dresser!

One thing I forgot to mention was the sides of the front curve in a bit so I distressed them a bit, then put on some dark wax to help them show up.

Yep, I'm really in love with this one. I think it's absolutely gorgeous!

I painted the inside of the top drawer in the pure white and distressed it a bit. I also painted the embellishment on the front of the second drawer and the top trim piece in pure white and lightly distressed them.

There's that gorgeous hardware all sprayed and looking brand spanking new!

Love, love, love this detail!!!

I love how this trim piece pops off the stained top!

The bottom cut-outs definitely needed to be painted in the French Linen color, they really stand out more now.

I should also point out, originally I had painted the top drawer all French Linen and then lined the grooves around the drawer in Pure White. I didn't like it and felt it needed more POP! I painted the entire inside of the drawer in Pure White and distressed it a teensy bit. I think it makes a huge difference.

This dresser taught me some lessons. From now on I will always go with my gut and my original vision. I tend to worry about doing something new and keeping things fresh, while worrying about whether I can sell a piece once it's done. I learned I have to trust myself and just go with it because in the long run this will save me a lot of time and STRESS! Usually when I see a piece of furniture I know right away what I want to do with it or at least some inkling of an idea, this piece was no exception. I went to bed last night thinking about this dresser and kicking myself for painting it grey originally, but when I woke up this morning I decided to get back at it and turn it into the dresser I had originally envisioned. I think I did exactly that and I'm happy I took the time to do it justice :-) Now the search is on for this piece of furniture to find a new home.

Please let me know what you think. I love your comments and any suggestions you have as well to improve the blog. If you are a follower, I will email you back via Gmail for your comments. If you're not a follower I will respond back via the reply option on blogger. As always, thank you for reading about this latest project.