This Dresser is Distressed Over Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint!

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This project came out even better than I anticipated. A client asked me to paint this dresser that was her Mother's. How great that she wanted it updated to be used in her house rather than discarded. 

I'm not sure how it is that I could forget to take a before picture. It was a dark stain, and the wood is in great shape but nothing special. The finish was good on most of it but had problem spots.

I painted it with Annie Sloan's Old White and did some distressing. I sent the customer a picture and she said to distress it more. I'm so glad she did because although I thought it was going to be overdone, I love it like this!

When I varnished it it really came to life!

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I've Been Waiting All Winter to Make This Bench

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Last year was a fairly busy year, plus I was injured, these two things kept me from creating some of the projects I have waiting for me. 

I've had this dresser for a few years and have moved it a couple of times. I've had this project in mind for some time now. I'll admit I saw this idea online, and now that I've finished this one I look forward to making another.

It started with this dresser.

I knocked apart what I no longer needed,

and added support for the seat, and the back and added some trim.

After sanding and paint (Annie Sloan, Provence).

I just went outside to go over to my shop and take a picture of the final product and this little guy was standing in the driveway looking at me.

 Then on to varnish, stain (Minwax, Ebony), varnish. I cut the top down to size to use for the seat, added a nice foam seat cushion, and here it is! Please excuse the background, I don't have the space or the muscles for nice staging.

So much fun!

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Liquor Cabinet Made Out of an Old Dresser

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I can't believe I didn't take a before picture of this one!  Well if I did, I can't find it.  Anyway, a friend gave me this one (thanks Clifford you are the best!), he described it as "a cheap Walmart dresser", so you can all picture it now right?

Well this is what it looks like now.

I painted the inside gray, and made two shelves and finished them with tongue and groove pine that I "weathered" myself.  So loving this new technique, I'm going to have to use it again soon. 

I made a rack in the middle for wine storage.

I added these plumbing pieces that I picked up in Mesa (from my favourite Mesa artist, Lance Lockhart) for the two drawers that I left in place.

I primed it and then painted it with black, I sanded it to expose some of the original finish and then gave it two coats of varathane.

I hope you like it!

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Vehicle Painted with Camouflage Design, Plus a Camo Dresser, Can You Find Them?

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I'm very excited about this post.   Last year my youngest son Sterling painted his Tracker in camo, he absolutely blew me away, he did such an awesome job!  I couldn't believe it, all of my kids are creative in their own way but he had not shown any sign of being an artist.  This was fabulously done!  I have been wanting him to paint some furniture for me ever since.

I bought a dresser at a yard sale and it is good and solid, I decided it was a good candidate for this paint technique.

I sanded the dresser and then stained the parts that I didn't want painted.  I then taped over the stained areas.  I did a little something different this time, I varnished around the taped areas lightly hoping that the varathane will seal the edge of the tape.  It does have a nice crisp edge so I guess it worked.

When the varathane was dry I painted it with Zinser 123 primer.

Here is a picture of the dresser waiting for Sterling's touch.

These are the paints, plus black of the same series.

The day has finally arrived. After this picture I did go over the stained areas and stained them darker.  I also varathaned the stained area.  

I wasn't sure what I was going to do about hardware, until I saw the dresser painted and then I knew...

hunter orange!

I love the way it turned out!

He did an awesome job, I think we make a great team!

The hardware turned out great!  It looks pretty light in this picture, I think the other pictures show the colour better, but look at the detail in the painting, awesome!

I hope it sells because I want to do another one, or 10, you know, why not carry on a good thing?

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Modern Magnificence, A Beautiful Dresser Makeover

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I bought this dresser at a yard sale, the finish was bad, but it was still good and sturdy.

I sanded the top because the finish was very worn.  I lean toward curves and scrolls etc, but I have to admit sanding something flat is so easy!  The top looked so good that I decided to sand the front.  Then the front looked so good I decided to go ahead and sand the whole thing.

At this point I was still planning to use some bright coloured paint somewhere on this thing.

I stained the top and front and was going to paint the rest, but I just couldn't commit to a colour.

I decided to move on to choosing hardware since I couldn't decide on a colour. 

 So... go modern?

Old school?

Add a little bling? (Always a good choice.)

And the winner is...

I love these little guys!

Now the problem with choosing the modern hardware is that I needed to cover the little holes left by the old hardware.  I had a few ideas but settled on this one, numbers.  At this point I was planning to paint the rest of the dresser white to match the numbers.  I asked my friend Laura what she thought and she suggested leaving the trim natural.  After much thought I decided to stain the sides and leave the rest natural.  It was a "natural" choice for this one, and I believe it was the right choice.

I know I probably say this every time, but I really LOVE this one!

I know this deserves some gorgeous background and beautiful staging, but my workshop is on the second story of my little building and I just can't wrestle my furniture around by myself (well, not once the finish is so pretty at least), and I can never wait to get them posted, so please try to ignore the mess and just feast your eyes on the beauty of the piece. :)

I think I will take wheels off of it, but for now it was so nice to easily be able to wheel it around to work on it, that I think I will leave them on for now.

Big news here, in less than 2 weeks My husband, daughter, son-in-law, and I are heading to Croatia.  Croatia is my husbands homeland and he has never been back since he came to Canada as an orphan in 1972.  When we get home from there I am taking a year off work, possibly leading to retirement.  We have starting gutting a stone house that we own, and are planning on redoing the whole house.  Life is going to be getting busier than ever!

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Reclaimed Wood Dresser Makeover, Rescuing Furniture One Piece At a Time.

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Wow, it's been such a crazy, busy summer I just realized that I neglected to share this next project with you.  My friend and co-worker Jeanet gave me an ugly dresser, she warned me before she brought it to me that it was ugly, and she wasn't kidding.  I find that I am ever the optimist, as soon as someone tells me about a piece of furniture I always think it is going to be better looking than it actually is.  I prepared myself for this one and it was still worse than I anticipated.  Oh well, sometimes ugly works, first of all you know it can't get worse, and secondly you can always just knock it to pieces and throw it in the fire if it doesn't work out.  This particular piece was slated for the dump when I rescued it.  To Jeanet's credit she did not buy this ugly mess, previous owners left it behind and she inherited it.

The outside is a lovely green melamine, oh, and it had wonderful plastic drawer pulls that I removed before remembering to take the glamour shot.

 I knew the only hope for this dresser was to cover the ugliness, originally I was going to cover it with Asian inspired fabric but decided to go with something not so gender specific.

I covered the top with reclaimed wood and love the result, next I covered the sides with thin tongue and groove pine which I painted gray with a distressed look.  I then covered the drawers with plaid fabric, which I love, but let me tell you plaid was not the easiest fabric to work with.  Lining up all the lines was a lot of work!  Finally I finished it off with some beautiful drawer pulls.

This shot does not really do this piece justice, but even in this photo I think you can see that this dresser went from ugly to fabulous!  What I like most about this piece is that it appealed to such a large audience, from seniors to young, men, and women alike.

I hope you all like it as much as I do!

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