Miss Frenchy Wears Teal

Isnt this a lovely looking french provincial dresser.  I drove a ways to pick her up from a slightly odd man.  It was dark and dreary in the room, so I was happy to get out of there quickly.

When I got home, I learned a valuable lesson.  Don’t let odd men in dingy dark settings deter you from really ‘checking out’ the piece.  Because it wasn’t until I got this beast home that I realized it was….eeek…laminate. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I have painted laminate in the past, and I will paint it again no doubt, but I certainly avoid it unless the dresser is either free, or a super-duper steal.  This thing was neither of those.  I didn’t overpay, but I don’t think I would have handed over that much had I known it was laminate. So lesson learnt!  Always check for presence of laminate.

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Anyways, onto the fun stuff.  I sanded (lightly) and made sure not to go through to the MDF.  I primed with a good adhesion primer which I tinted to a similar colour as my top coat. 

When I came back a couple of hours later I realized I had left the garage door open, and apparently someone had stopped in for a visit because there were some strange markings in the finish.

I was able to apprehend the culprit pretty quickly though.  Blue paws tell no lies.

After priming, I did two coats of a colour I custom mixed.  I was inspired by a piece by Estuary Designs and wanted to mix up a similar colour.  In real life she is more teal-green, my camera favours the blue tones and I can't quite capture the colour accurately.

I gave the hardware a subtle spritz with some gold spray paint just to refresh them a tad.  

And here is the before.  Looks like real wood, or at least wood veneer, doesn't it!