Refinishing a Dresser….it’s easier than you think!

I’m kicking myself.  Once again I did a piece of furniture without a before picture.  I swore I had taken one though, but apparently I didn’t.  I’ve checked 2 cameras and my phone…nothing.  SO just imagine with me would you?

This dresser, but just plain wood.  Pretty color stain though…dark…walnuttish, but seriously bubbled up from being out in a hot barn for too many years.  I don’t know why this was in a hot barn…it’s gorgeous!  And it was in a set…there’s a bed and a desk that went with it.  I talked my friend T into buying the other pieces for her little girl in their new house…I can’t wait to see it in a little girl’s room.  I was obsessed with this dresser though, so she kept 2 pieces and I got this one.

I painted it with a grayish oops paint that I found for $2.50/qt.  I have absolutely no idea what color this was…but it looks bluer in this picture than it actually is.  It’s definitely got blue in it, but not this much.  (And I did take the hardware off to paint…I put all the pulls back on though to use this as a drink stand for our Easter Egg Hunt.)

I’d painted this first coat on before I learned about Annie Sloan’s Chalk paint which I just ordered some of yesterday for my next project.  With the Chalk Paint you don’t have to sand or prime…you just paint and distress and wax…and it’s all non toxic.  It’s not as cheap as my oops paint by a long shot though.  But with 2 little kids at home…time is money, and it takes a LOT more time for me to sand and prime than is worth the money to me.  So next up is this china cabinet…. It’s gonna see some chalk paint love and I cannot wait!

Ok, so back to this dresser.  I think I’ll name it Beatrice…sounds like a pretty old name for a pretty old gal, and it’s the first name that just came to my mind when I looked at it.

I took the drawers out and dry brushed everything in Benjamin Moore Moon Shadow…which is sort of a pale creamy taupe-ish gray (and I already had some of it.)

After I lightly drybrushed everything, I then went back and sanded to distress.  This piece I really concentrated on the edges of the drawers and the higher relief areas what would get bumped when opening and closing.  When you sand across everything, it softens the look of your drybrushing as well… which I, for one, really like.

After the sanding, then on this piece I used Minwax Walnut stain and brushed it on and wiped most of it right back off immediately.  I do this part in really small sections so that the stain doesn’t dry (it happens fast, so I brush on with one hand and off with the other with a rag.  Mr Miyagi would be proud…I have some serious “wax on, wax off” motions going when I’m doing this.

So here’s how 2 of the drawers turned out.  

I did concentrate more of the Moon Shadow on this gorgeous  raised scrolly part to really make it stand out.  I also did the same thing on some detail work on the sides which you can see here below as well. 

Look at the way that the bubbling of the finish from before turned out when it was painted, sanded, and stained….oh my words…it is UH-mazing!  Thank you to the previous owner who’s neglect made Beatrice that much more beautiful!

And here she is…all done.  Beatrice is by far my most favorite piece that I’ve refinished…probably why she is the first one I’ve bothered naming.