Do you ever get the feeling that it's time to change up your surroundings? I sure do. I blame it on the fact that for a good solid 9-10 years of my life, between college and the first few years in the "real world", I moved at least once a year every year. Even though I know we are staying put for a while, we've been in our place for about a year and a half now, and I've been feeling the itch...the need to clean out the condo, reorganize, redecorate, and generally change things up a bit.
SO! What does a crafty girl do when she feels the need to change up her home? Refinish furniture! A few years ago I did this when I bought a dresser off of Craigslist. It was so great...4 drawers, tall, shabby, and chic, perfect...for me... Sadly, it wasn't big enough for my clothes AND Jim's clothes. (Jimbo, sorry you've had to use a tupperware bin on the floor of the closet to hold your sock overflow...) Alas, a couple of weeks ago, I finally came to terms with the fact that we needed a bigger dresser and it was time to let go of my older one (some may not see the difficulty in this, but I was pretty attached to that dresser).
I have only one word for those of you who want an update yet live on a budget: CRAIGSLIST! If I'm being brutally honest, I think I may have an addiction to Craigslist. Not even kidding...and having an app on my phone doesn't help the situation. After a few days of searching, I finally found this dresser:
I know, I know. Not the most attractive in style--perhaps it seems a little outdated...BUT!!! I really liked the size, the shape, the lines, "the bones", etc. And let's be serious, the price was right, and it was solid wood, so we jumped on it. It did come with a large mirror that attaches to the top, but I'm saving that for a later project (perhaps with a cool finish in an entry way one day???).
Before we got started, we had to buy the proper tools. And really, if you don't already have one and you want to refinish furniture, buy a sander! We went with
The Mouse, because the price was right and it looked cool (and it can do lots of different things and get into small spaces). You can use plain old sand paper, but it could take a while...
How exactly do you refinish a dresser? Well...
Masks are cool! And they help you avoid inhaling dust and prevent an allergy attacks...
Jimbo hard at work. He's a professional sander!
Don't forget the drawers...
Ta Da! The sanded dresser. Thanks to The Mouse, this whole process only took about 30-45 minutes (like I said, TOTALLY worth the investment).
Just a note on the sanding process...if you have the ability to do this in a well-ventilated area, like, say, a garage or driveway, I would highly recommend sanding (and really, doing this entire project) there! The day prior to doing this, Jim and I hauled this hunk of a dresser up two flights of stairs into our condo (it was not easy, and definitely not a pretty sight), and there was NO WAY I was going to move it back downstairs to work on this project. It was cold, but we kept our windows open and put several plastic sheets down to cover carpets/collect dust, etc.
Step 2: PRIME
Here's our primed piece. I kind of botched this step, and really, next time I do this, I'll make sure to not hurry through the priming stage (like I did this time...). Because we didn't put on a couple of coats of primer, or one thicker coat, we ended up needing several coats of paint.
Step 3: Paint one coat, be patient, wait for several hours, then paint another coat...
...or three or four more coats. Like I said, we didn't really do a very good job of priming, so it took a good amount of paint to cover the darker stain. It took SEVERAL hours, in fact, now that I'm thinking back on this step, we actually let some of the paint dry over night. Probably a good idea when trying to get a professional finish, but this was a bit difficult for me (I'm really not a patient person). Sorry guys, I don't have any pictures from this step of the project--I was too busy staring at the wet paint trying to encourage it to dry...
Step 4: Spray paint drawer pulls
New, fun drawer pulls can always spruce up a dresser and help in the refinishing process. Unfortunately, the drawer handles that were on our dresser (yes, those fancy, brassy things) were a bit of an unusual size and I couldn't really find handles to replace them. Our solution: spray paint! After we took the pulls off the drawers, we primed them and then used a metallic spray paint that has a cool texture to it once it's dry. This is also a step to practice patience, as you really need to wait for the paint to dry between applications. And really, it helps to read the directions on the can of spray paint...we didn't even need the primer! Apologies again for no photos of this stage. Jim was spray painting drawer pulls while I was watching the paint on the dresser dry....
Step 5: Let the entire project dry overnight, reattach the handles, and put drawers back in their place!
Voila! It's our "newsed" and improved dresser! I have to say, I really love this thing now that we refinished it. One day I may hit the corners and edges with sand paper to make it looks a little more shabby chic, but for now, I'm going to keep it like this. It's just so hard to take that step to "shab" up something you just spent so much time painting! Also, we used ALL of the paint we bought for this project, so I couldn't touch up any potential mistakes or paint another coat if I didn't like the sanded look. I am so proud of us! I think it will look awesome once I get the window finished and hung (I have big plans for that window...but you'll just have to wait for another blog post). Other things go on top of the dresser as well...I guess I need to go find those now that the dresser is finished...
Operation Refinish Dresser: success!
Operation Open New Browser Window To Find Next Craigslist Refinishing Project: mission launched :)
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