Not too long ago I saw a post Layla, from The Lettered Cottage, did where she made over her bedroom dresser and I was immediately inspired! Wanna see what I came up with? Here it is!
See, Layla did a rope pull on her dresser drawers and once I saw that I HAD to copy for a nautical themed dresser re-do I had been brainstorming about. I followed her steps pictured below:
(Picture from TLC here)
My dresser is not quite done yet, but here it is, near the finish line:
I decided to do the knotted rope pulls on the 2nd and 4th drawers, and keep the original knobs (that I stained the same color as the top) on the 1st and 3rd drawers. Here be the knobs:
The stain on the knobs is still drying which is why I've yet to put them back on. Oh, and that's stain on my finger...not blood. :)
And yes, that's a tarp in my living room where I painted this piece. The foul winter weather that seems to be haning around isn't going to stop me from doing what I love! :)
I'm just thankful my husband puts up with little spur of the moment projects that spring up around the house like this. Thanks hun ;)
In the photo above you can see the roll of rope I used, which came from Ace Hardware, and the Minwax finishing paste is what I used to seal and protect the dresser after I painted it. It dries with a nice hard protective coat, without too much of the shine that gloss polyurethane has.
My painting technique for this was kind of trial and error. I knew I wanted a rustic, beach-cottage finish and so I started with a light grey as the base (which was a paint sample left over from our bedroom makeover - pics are halfway down that page), and then once dry, went over it with white enamel paint we had in the basement.
When that dried I went to town with some sandpaper and distressed spots that would get the most natural wear, i.e. around the handles, corners, and edges.
I sanded down and stained the top and knobs Minwax's Dark Walnut. I like the nice contrast between the warm, dark top and cool, breezy bottom:
(Haha, 'breezy bottom' just made me laugh. That sounds like an issue with an open fly on your trousers or something!) :)
This dresser was all light-colored wood before. About halfway through the painting, it wasn't turning out the way I had envisoned. I was about to throw in the towel and just paint it all white, haha.
But I'm really happy I stuck with it, and now I love how it's turned out! :)
How bout you? Any projects you've started and then hated halfway through? Did they end up just how you wanted? Better? Worse? Do tell!
~Amy
Amy...every design I make goes through what I call the "ugly" stage. I've found it to be quite refreshing to get to that point in a design, it means that I'm about to be done and it never ever ends up ugly.
ReplyDeleteYou did an awesome job, I love the finished project. Very cute idea.
ps...I always use old left over paint, I even mix to see what colors I come up with :)