This project has to be one of my favorite furniture makeovers to date because of it’s backstory, the actual process of making it over, and because it’s going to be put to good use in my boyfriend Matt’s apartment.
So, first up- the backstory! Matt’s great grandmother passed this dresser down to him when he was growing up, and he used it for years in his parents home. He recently has decided that he could use a dresser in his bedroom for our things (we live about 45 mins to an hour apart from each other right now so I’ve been leaving things there to make it easier and taking up some of his space) and searched around for a good candidate. When he couldn’t find anything he loved, he decided to surprise me for Christmas with his original dresser and we worked on it over the holidays.
It was my first dresser re-do and letmetellyouhowexcitedIwas! That’s not even sarcasm either. I think it’s so awesome to work on a well loved piece like this. After seeing so many amazing ideas around the web for dressers and couldn’t wait to get started. So, we didn’t!
We stopped by the hardware store, just before the winter-pocolypse-ice-tundra storm came (which was PACKED with people picking up supplies incase they were trapped indoors the next few days) and picked up our stain, primer and paint.
Since we wanted to keep it as simple as possible, we decided to reuse the existing hardware holes, and purchased new hardware to fit. The top two smaller drawers needed a 2.5″ handle, and the bottom six needed 3″ handles. We fell in love with the idea of two different styles, and picked up this cup handle by Style Selections and pull by Brainerd.
Next up came the work! We sanded down the drawer fronts using an orbital sander until they were free from any gloss or previous stain. This is one of those “miracles of blogs” things where sanding down eight drawers takes over an hour, but only gets one sentence of glory, so I decided two pictures were necessary to portray all of the dust we made (we had to do it indoors in my kitchen, and my whole house was covered in red dust by the time we were done.)
Once they were all sanded, we taped off the sides of the drawers to avoid drips, and stained the fronts using Minwax’s Dark Walnut.
We wiped off the excess stain after about 5 minutes, removed the tape, and then left them to dry overnight.
For the body of the dresser, we roughed up the top and sides with the sander to ensure the primer would bond with the surface, and gave it a good cleaning. We chose to use Zinsser’s Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer, and applied it using a roller and angled brush.
Fast forward the clock a few hours, and it was time to paint! We chose Valspar’s City Storm as a muddy gray color to compliment the rich tone of the wood stain. We used a semi-gloss finish, which was surprisingly a really think paint, despite other brands we’ve used being thin and runny. Two coats using a roller and an angled brush again, and it was all starting to come together!
To protect all of the surfaces, we give her two coats of a water-based satin poly, waiting a few hours in between applications.
Last but not least, we attached our new hardware and put it all back together!
We absolutely love how the hardware turned out when it was all put together and think the different lines in the wood give it a fun look highlighted with the dark stain.
I got a little picture happy playing with my new camera : )
One of the funniest moments of the process was finding the furniture tag and looking up how much the dresser was originally purchased for… it’s a Thomasville piece that now sells for a minimum of $1,300. We cracked up thinking about how we just painted over that expensive of a piece, but loved the outcome so much that it made us confident with our decision.
What do you think? We’re so excited to move it into his room and working on a project with my guy was so much fun! He might be in trouble and I might have him help me more ; )
Prost!
-J&P (&M today!)
Linking up at: Miss Mustard Seed, The Pin Junky, Whipperberry, Remodelaholic
It’s beautiful! I haven’t tackled a dresser yet either, but I saw some really tempting candidates at the thrift store this morning. I love that yours is even more special since it came from the family!
You should definitely give one a try- It was a lot of fun switching it up : ) Thanks! I can’t wait to get it to his place and to start using it!
This looks amazing! I love the combination of dark stained wood with the gray, it looks so elegant! I made over a couple of dressers last year (painted them turquoise!) and they’ve held up really well. Enjoy your gorgeous new piece of furniture 🙂
Thank you! It was a lot of fun to refinish 🙂 turquoise sounds like a beautiful pop of color!
How gorgeous! I especially like the hardware you chose! It’s an awesome dresser to begin with, too. I have yet to do a major furniture makeover and am patiently waiting for the right piece to do it with :).
Much better, the original was very dated looking. I like the silver hardware with the grey also. Nice!
Thanks Terry! Got to love what a little paint and stain can do 🙂 I’m so glad you like it!
Beautiful! I love the new paint and hardware! What a transformation 🙂 Thanks so much for linking up at Thursday STYLE!
Thank you for hosting it! It was fun looking through all of the great projects linked up 🙂
Beautiful transformation.
Thank you Kaylor 🙂
Turned out so beautiful! It is so nice to be able to enjoy such a sentimental piece. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Susie! I’m glad you like it : )
THE DRESSER TURNED OUT BEAUTIFUL, I WOULD LOVE TO FEATURE IT , IF THATS OK PLEASE LET ME KNOW
LAUREN
Thank you Lauren! We’d love for it to be featured! If you could please just link back to Sypsie.com we’d appreciate it : ) Thanks again!
Love how you mixed the grey paint with the dark wood stain. Also the decor you used just pulled it together. I host a Wednesday link party and would love for you to share this.
Thanks Jamie! We had a lot of fun deciding on what colors and stain to use together- I’m glad you like it! We’d love to link it up at your party, thanks for the invite : )
You did an amazing job on the dresser. I love the look of the hardware you chose. I hope you kept the old hardware for another project.
Thank you! We most certainly did : ) I’m not sure where they will go right now, but thinking a clean newer piece with the old hardware might be a fun combination!
Awesome job! Love the color combo 🙂 I once took on the challenge of painting my dresser, and let me just say that it did not look like this. Yours looks great though!
Thanks so much Ashley! Oh no! That’s the great thing about redoing furniture- you can always repaint or sand and restain! I’m sure yours still looks great tho : )
It turned out so great! I really love the look of the wood grain drawer fronts with the rest of the dresser painted. I did a similar thing last year. Love the color you chose and the hardware. Perfect! Thanks for linking up to The Makers!
Thanks Alexis! We had a lot of fun picking out the finishes : ) We love yours too- that green is too perfect! Thanks so much for hosting!