A Bit O' Whimsy: dresser

These past few weeks have been busy ones. I have been working quickly so I can finish all my pieces on time for customers. I had a local customer call me to have one of my dressers for sale custom painted. She had seen the Old White and Paris Grey antique hutch I painted about a month ago and loved it. She wanted the dresser to be similar but she was going to be using this dresser to hold her T.V. I love when people use furniture for something other than it was intended for. She gave me free reign to paint my own interpretation of the hutch as a dresser. I had a lot of fun but also some unexpected bumps in the road.

The sheen on this dresser beforehand was amazingly shiny. I don't know what was on it but it was slick. I cleaned it off as usual with Simple Green since it wasn't too filthy or grimy. I used my air compressor paint gun to paint the base coat of Old White. It just wasn't sticking the way ASCP usually does, it looked like the paint was separating in some places and when it dried it would flake off in huge chunks. I like the peeled paint look, but it wasn't the "look" I wanted for this piece. I thought maybe I should break out the brush, maybe it would stick better or at least it wouldn't blow off the dry cracked paint. I ended up having to sand down the peeling spots so when I painted over it it would be a smooth surface. The brush seemed to make all the difference. Bump one, conquered.

The second bump in the road was the hardware. I don't know what it is but for some reason every time I plan on using original hardware, one breaks in half. I had some cute knobs that I bought at Michaels that I just have been dying to put on something. I thought I might be able to pull off the non-matching hardware. I thought it worked out nicely with the light blue and black songbird.

Once I saw all of this together, the last and final bump presented itself. I don't always have a clear picture of what exactly I am going to do, it just comes a little step at a time. After I saw the hardware on, I felt like we needed to tie in some more black. I was envisioning a beautiful stained ebony top. I love a good stained top. I would sand every top and stain it if it was up to me. It's just so much more durable and I love beautiful wood. I proceeded to sand down the top that I just painted (Argh... money in paint down the drain, I really need to have a clear picture before I paint). What was under the paint and crazy shiny layer of poly? Composite wood. That's right, really smooth composite wood. I decided I'd break out the ASCP graphite and do the next best thing: paint the top.

So there you go. I added some clear and dark wax for protection and patina. I put on several coats of polyurethane on the top for protection and called it beautiful. I also talked my customer through a little tip or two about painting with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint since she is planning on painting one of her own dressers. ASCP is so easy to use, anyone can do it. I can't wait to see how hers turns out. Good Luck!

Here's my cute daughter. You can't see it but she's taking a picture of the dresser too. She loves to get out her camera and do a little photo shoot of her own.