Craig's List Dresser Makeover

When I bought my house, the first thing I noticed was that I have almost zero storage. Seriously. There's a smallish closet by the front door (this is actually the biggest closet in the whole house), there's an open nook in the front bathroom, and each bedroom has a teeny tiny closet. Apparently, people in 1924 weren't all that into storing stuff like lawn mowers, out of season clothes (or any clothes at all, really), and luggage. So I decided that any furniture I buy will have to also store stuff.

I stumbled upon the world's ugliest dresser on Craig's list on New Year's Day and by January 2nd, I was the proud owner of not only it, but also an IKEA mirror I had on my wishlist which was randomly sitting in the seller's garage (this one, they sold me theirs for $20, win!).

This is actually the seller's picture.

When I got the dresser home, I realized someone had painted it using latex paint on the bare wood. It was peeling like crazy.

While the paint was not adhering well at all, scraping it only got me strips of paint. So I resorted to sanding. A ton. I started out with this 3M Rubber Sanding Block (Amazon Affiliates link), but then once I started using Bondo as a wood filler, I bought this power sander (Amazon Affiliates link) and life got a lot easier. 

I filled all of the holes from the hardware and a couple super deep gouges. Then I pulled out the paint I purchased just for this project, Southern Belle Decorative Paint's Talladega Tar (grey) and Granny Smith Apple (green) chalk paint. This was my first time using chalk paint and I wasn't looking to invest a ton in these colors. I did not prime this piece because everything I read about chalk paint said not to bother. 

And then this happened.

The furry culprit.

If I could go back and change just one thing about this project, it would be priming. I wasted so much paint due to the crappy adherence of the latex paint (even roughed up with the sander). That photo above where Cokaya walked through the wet paint was just the first coat. Wow. It also took about a million coats on the top to get smooth (Kai walked through it as well, but I didn't get a picture). 

I want to say this was the second to last coat. They all sort of blended together in my mind after a while.

After sanding the drawers down again and repainting, here's the second first coat:

So much better. 

Once I got everything smoothed out, painting got a lot easier. I tried out Minwax Paste Finishing Wax (Amazon Affiliates link) for the first time ever and have decided I don't like it (note to self: chunks do not turn clear). This was 100% user error though. It is by no means a bad product. I just epic failed at it and the fumes bothered my asthma. 

I love it!

That brings us to the final result. I found lionhead hardware (Amazon Affiliate link) for dirt cheap on Amazon in brass, roughed them up, and spray painted them using Rust-Oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Metallic Spray Paint(Amazon Affiliate link). I am so happy with the final result. It looks great in my entry way and I plan on using the drawers for DVD storage if nothing better comes along before I unpack my DVDs (but that's a whole different story). :-)