Happy February! It’s hard to believe that the first month of 2024 is already in the books.
This month I plan to finally tackle our coat closet as long as all goes according to plan. I will spend the first couple weeks doing a few more pieces of furniture, and hopefully we will be ready to get started on it before the month is over.
Today’s dresser makeover took three attempts before I finally got it right, but it was a learning experience and the final result was absolutely worth it!
Supplies Used:(Affiliate links may be provided for convenience. For more info, see my full disclosure here.)
I found this beauty on Marketplace for $30 and although the paint job was worn, I knew that I could fix it up and make it beautiful again!
Once we picked it up I realized that it wasn’t any old dresser, it was a Thomasville! This brand is known for its beautiful quality and construction. Upon further inspection I found a date mark from the 1940s which meant that this gorgeous piece was about 80 years old!
I started cleaning the dirt off with Simple Green, and found that one of the drawers was split on the back. Nothing a little wood glue and clamping couldn’t fix!
I also removed the handles which I decided to keep since they were solid wood and unique to this piece.
The veneer has started to peel up in a few areas so I glued it back down and then used Bondo to fill in.
The paint job was fairly decent, so I was able to just remove a few chipping areas and then scuff sand the rest to prep it for primer and paint. I chose to sand the feet and embellishment detailing down to the bare wood, then taped them off before applying a coat of clear shellac primer.
Attempt #1
I used a light paint color and whitewashed the bare wood which got me to here.
I thought that I was pretty happy with the end result…until the buyer arrived to get it. They informed me that they decided to pass since it looked “too unfinished” and I was left feeling embraced and slightly confused.
After staring at it some more decided to try a different look and I went back to the drawing board.
Attempt #2
I did a quick scuff sand to rough up the polyacrylic that I had applied, and then sprayed a couple coats of black paint.
I then added some scalloped tape just above the top drawer.
I stuck a trash bag to the other side of the tape to protect the black paint before spraying the top a light gray.
I spent a decent amount of time fixing areas of paint bleed, but once I got it inside I didn’t even get it staged and photographed again before I realized that I hated this look!
The issue was not with the design, but the dreary colors. So I hauled it back out to the garage again…
Attempt #3
I still wanted to do the scalloped design, so I went ahead and taped it off again.
This time I spayed it a rich brown.
After the second coat was dry, I mixed white paint into my sprayer, taped off the bottom and then sprayed that lighter color on top.
I sanded off the white wash from the feet and handles since I decided to just leave the wood completely natural. I also decided that the embellishment looked better painted.
And then finally—after all of that we had a look that I was smitten with!
The warm brown tones fit this piece perfectly and really blended with the natural wood color nicely.
This piece was a true work of love! It took a lot of trial and error, butwe finally got it!
Thanks for swinging by today, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and I’ll be back next week!
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Love it. The colors are perfect, even your first attempt was pretty darn good. If you can would you tell me the colors that you used?
Cynthia
It is so hard deciding what color, what style or design you want to use oh a dresser. I know. Third time was definitely a charm. Where did you get that tape? Thank you for sharing.