While running around a few estate sales the other day, I came across this small dresser. It looked sad to me =( like it needed a new life. I couldn't think of any reason I particularly needed it at the time but it was so ridiculously cheap that I bought it anyway.
Anyway, I knew I didn't want to spend much money on this project, seeing as I had no idea what I even planned on doing with it. So I went to Home Depot and bought some paint. Tip: If you don't want to spend a lot for paint and don't have your heart set on an exact color, look in the returned paint section at Home Depot or Lowe's. You don't want to go with the super cheap stuff believe me. For this project I lucked into a gallon of Behr's Premium Plus paint in "Chameleon" for $5.00. These cans usually run around $30.oo per gallon. If possible, I prefer to use Behr's Ultra Premium Plus because it has a built in primer which saves you a step. In this case, I really liked the color and it was a good deal so I went for it.
After getting home and removing the ugly contact paper and equally ugly hardware I then lightly sanded it. Since I didn't get the Ultra Premium paint, I went ahead and sprayed the whole thing with Kilz Primer. If you ever take on a project like this you will want to prime it to save future headaches and make your piece look great.
I decided to distress the dresser just a little bit. If you plan on distressing, apply a paste wax over the primer or if you are distressing more than just a little bit, you will want to use a contrasting color for the bottom layer. Wait 24 hours after painting and apply the paste wax just over the areas that you plan to distress. You only need to wait about an hour after applying the paste wax to paint your first coat of the outer layer. Wait at least 18 hours, paint your last coat and waa laa! After your last coat has dried, you can then distress. Since I only wanted to distress just a bit at the tops and bottoms of the drawers I used a fine 220 grit sandpaper and lightly sanded those areas. If you want a heavier distress, use several different grits.
Lastly, I screwed in the new hardware I bought on sale for a buck a knob at Hobby Lobby and was done. Of course it was so cute I found a spot for it =)
It had this yucky faux wood contact paper on the top. Why do people do this?? I will never understand! Sure the wood underneath it was a little rough, but so much better than this.
After getting home and removing the ugly contact paper and equally ugly hardware I then lightly sanded it. Since I didn't get the Ultra Premium paint, I went ahead and sprayed the whole thing with Kilz Primer. If you ever take on a project like this you will want to prime it to save future headaches and make your piece look great.
I decided to distress the dresser just a little bit. If you plan on distressing, apply a paste wax over the primer or if you are distressing more than just a little bit, you will want to use a contrasting color for the bottom layer. Wait 24 hours after painting and apply the paste wax just over the areas that you plan to distress. You only need to wait about an hour after applying the paste wax to paint your first coat of the outer layer. Wait at least 18 hours, paint your last coat and waa laa! After your last coat has dried, you can then distress. Since I only wanted to distress just a bit at the tops and bottoms of the drawers I used a fine 220 grit sandpaper and lightly sanded those areas. If you want a heavier distress, use several different grits.
Lastly, I screwed in the new hardware I bought on sale for a buck a knob at Hobby Lobby and was done. Of course it was so cute I found a spot for it =)
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