A Painted Dresser

I have all these projects that I need to write about and I had the good intention of writing then in chronological order of when I did them. Then I realized I hadn't blogged about a chair I refinished back in July...so since I was already off I might as well throw that idea to the wind.

This project is one I just finished for my aunt and it's my favorite piece I've done to date so that's what I'm going to write about :)

The dresser to start out wasn't bad at all. It just had a very "Pottery Barn" look about it (probably because it was from Pottery Barn but that's beside the point). Anyway, so it used to be in my cousins nursery and they're redoing her room now and it doesn't fit with the new decor there or in the rest of the house so it had been living in the basement. 

My aunts house is mostly browns, golds, and cremes. It's a mix of classics with a touch of what I'd call "glam". 

Luckily, my aunt was game for pretty much whatever. She just wanted the chest to be a chocolate brown. I sent her the idea for the painted chest (which I saw here) and she loved it. 

I started out by using a little gold rub n' buff on the edges in the hopes that it would show through when I distressed it. However, it wound up rubbing off quite a bit when I distressed it so next time I think I'll use another kind of paint. 

I made my own chalk paint again using this tutorial. The just bought another Behr sample from Home Depot in Dark Truffle. I did two full coats and then a touch up third coat where it was still not completely opaque.

Then, I put the drawers back in and sketched out my design to paint. (I actually had only painted the drawers at this point and not the dresser base because I was anxious to paint the detail work :) ) I used a white kind of charcoal crayon because I couldn't find any chalk but basically the idea is to be able to sketch out the shape of what you want to paint with a medium that you can wipe off later when you finish.

I only sketched out the general shape because I wanted it to have that really hand painted feel and not be completely perfect. I used a cream Behr paint (I can't remember the name of it now!) and watered it down. I used that with just a craft paint brush to create a sort of "leaf" shape for the vine design.

When I had completely finished painting everything, I waxed everything down using Annie Sloan wax (2 coats on the drawers and 1 on the base). The drawer pulls I used were just from Hobby Lobby. I wanted something cream and simple with a sort of flower shape that would compliment the vine design.

The last thing I did was to add some drawer liners. It wasn't necessary, but I think it added another fun touch and helped the piece feel more expensive and like all the details had been though through. I found the wrapping paper I used locally at Celebrations and simply cut it to size and used double sided table to keep it in place in the drawers.

I was SO pleased with how this piece turned out! As usual, my parents wanted to keep it, but it went back to live with my aunt. It has yet to find a permeant home but has been moving around for now :)

Here's the final before and after. I love how such a simple piece can be so special after a bit of work!

PS I "staged" the shots for the finished piece in our house. It's so funny how it looks good in the shots you take but really the room looked like a complete wreck and it was too small for the space! ;)