This dark stained dresser has been with me for quite a while. I bought it from an unfinished furniture store over fifteen years ago. I think it was the first piece of "real" furniture I ever purchased. Yes, I did choose that stain. At the time it looked nice, but even then I remember secretly wanting the stain to be lighter. Oh, the influence the men in our lives have over us. For some reason the men I know seem to love dark furniture. My husband does...and as a consequence our house is full of it. Oh well! You live and you learn.
Back to the dresser. It has been lurking in the basement guest bedroom since we moved into our current home. It has been filled with craft supplies and fabric. But Millie needed a new dresser for her bedroom and since I already had this one I decided to see if I could make it work.
I got a bunch of off-white paint chips to see if I could color match it to her bed which came facory painted from IKEA. I found that Sherwin Williams Dover White was a perfect match. I had the Dover White mixed at Home Depot in flat Behr Premium Plus (Sherwin Williams paint smells bad to me and gives me a headache).
Doesn't she look pretty now! She looks very Pottery Barnesque to me.
Here are the steps I used to get a nice finish.
1. First I gave the whole dresser a once over with the orbital sander. This is totally unnecessary for adhesion because of the primer I used, but there were some rough spots that I wanted to smooth.
2. Next I filled dent and holes with Elmer's wood filler and sanded again.
3. I covered the whole dresser with Zinzer Cover Stain (in the brown can). I used a high density foam roller for this. I also used disposable craft store foam brushes to cut into the crevices. When I was done I threw everything away = easy clean-up for this oil based paint. I did one coat on most of the dresser, but two on the top since it gets the most use.
4. Sand between coats.
5. Painted the dresser with the Behr Premium Plus (in SW Dover White). I mixed in Floetrol paint conditioner to minimize lines and brush strokes. Again I used the foam roller and brushes. It took three light coats to get the coverage I was looking for. Again, I sanded between coats.
6. I wanted a natural looking farmhouse finish on this dresser. I decided to use a paste-wax as a topcoat, and it gave me the natural look I was going for. I used Trewax brand paste wax in clear because that is what I had on hand. There are other brands out there that may or may not work better. I don't know. After a few days the past wax "set" and became a semi-hard finish that protects the paint.
Here are some more pictures of the Millie's new dresser in her bedroom.
I made these tissue paper pom-poms a while back. They are so much fun in a girls room. Some were made from a Martha Stewart Weddings craft kit and the others I made on my own.
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