When a friend asked me if I wanted to buy some project dressers (four total) that she had not been able to get to, I jumped on it. Good, decent dressers are becoming harder and harder to find.
Here is the first one I took from dumpy to delightful!
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It is a fairly common oak dresser, with some nice details, dovetailed drawers--but, it had seen better days. It was fairly beat up, with lots of scratches and dings and dents.
I knew it was a perfect candidate for one of the new Fusion Mineral Paint colors from the Michael Penney collection. I chose to paint it in Putty, which is a greigy, perfect neutral color that will coordinate with anything.
I sanded the top (there were some pretty good gauges in the top) and stained it with Minwax's Dark Walnut.
I used Minwax's Polyacrylic in gloss to protect the top. TIP--if the finish feels a little rough after it dries, use a brown lunch sack to give the finish a very smooth feel.
After staining and clear coating the top, I painted the drawers and body of the dresser.
I have used a lot of different chalk paint, and while they all have their own attributes and work well, I love FUSION! It goes on so smoothly, covers so well (this is one coat!), has ZERO VOC, dries so nicely and has a built in finish--no tedious waxing!! I only used about 1/4 to 1/3 of a pint to paint this dresser.
I painted right over the drawer hardware. I distressed the paint lightly, using my random orbital sander and 120 grit sandpaper. I simply touch or pounce the sander on the paint to lightly distress it.
I love the keyholes on each drawer.
The wood top and the painted body gives this dresser that great farmhouse vibe that I adore!
Bonus fall centerpiece idea: I threw some gourds in a pedestal wood bowl I painted and added some copper string lights. It adds a nice, warm glow in the evening.