For some reason these old armoire-like dressers have been in high demand. I can see the convenience of something looking like an armoire but having drawers inside. I guess I'm just not a huge fan of the very blocky shape, but despite that, I have had several people who wanted me to find one for them. I scoured Craigslist constantly and found a few. I will be showing you just one of them today.
This beast of a dresser reminds me of the ugly duckling. It was hideous. I am so grateful for my client being able to see past the ugly picture of the dresser I sent her in an e mail, and see the potential it could have. I thought for sure I'd scare her away and she'd think I was crazy for even suggested this particular dresser.
It had some crazy huge flower knobs that just weren't doing it for me. It was also the heaviest piece of furniture I have yet to come across. Just one drawer had to be like 30 lbs. It clearly had been left in the sun in someone's yard for awhile because the wood was so dry. The old poly was peeling and I had to sand down the peeling top.
I outlined the piece in Old White and was planning on doing the rest in Aubusson Blue chalk paint, but I was running low on that particular color at the moment. I thought I'd call up my stockist and have it shipped since we don't have any stockists here in Vegas. While I was waiting for it to ship I was just going to do all the white painting first. I ran into a BIG problem though- everyone at the paint shop was out of town for an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint convention and wouldn't be able to get it to me in time. AHH! It seems that things never go the way I plan so I always plan for change :) I ran to lowes and had my Aubusson Blue color-matched perfectly. My plan B was DIY chalk paint. I have tried this once before, it works well enough. I just add a little bit of plaster of paris powder and water to my latex paint. Then it becomes like chalk paint in that it will stick to any surface without sanding and priming beforehand. I don't think it has the same luxurious feel as real chalk paint and it is much harder to distress. But hey, it gets the job done.
I had first painted the white and then when it dried I taped off the white to paint the blue. When I ripped the tape off it pulled some of the paint off with it. Normally, I would have been opposed to this and painted over it again, but since the wood was so dry it peeled the white paint off it just the right way. It looked awesome, like it had aged and ripened to the perfect amount of "peeling chippiness."
I also found all the deep grooves from being so rough were just accentuated beautifully by the dark wax.
It turned out pretty cool and unique. It's not my usual style but it's fun to think out of the box at times. Oh and be sure to check back in on Monday because I will be posting a tutorial for a beautiful French Provincial nightstand that I silver-leafed today. See you then!
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