Weathered Teal 9-Drawer Dresser

Eeeek.  Im losing the light.  Daylight savings and the Earth's tilt are taking my good lighting away for pictures.  Its dark here now at about 5pm.  I think I snapped these pics at about 3:30 and it was already so dark that they look really grainy and my wallpaper looks pink instead of white.  So, apologies in advance for that.

I was really happy to do this piece after that crazy white mcm overhaul I did before.  This was a wonderful, textbook project.  I found this great Kroller piece which is solid wood and in fantastic condition.

 I started by sanding down the entire piece , cleaning it, and then painting on a couple of coats of teal chalkpaint.

Its been a while since I did anything whimsical, so I added some vintage wallpaper from Eaton's to the top square detailing.

I used a very light shade of blue to fill in the recessed rectangle trim to add a little bit of extra visual interest.

I gave the entire piece a super-duper heavy distressing.  I wanted this piece to look really aged and weathered.

A closeup at the recessed detailing and the hardware.



FOR SALE ON MY ETSY SHOP!!

THE BEFORE

Mid century modern set

Well Im slowly working my way through my stash of mid century pieces and the garage is starting to exhale again as the stress of containing everything alleviates.  Another problem is arising though - Im accumulating a surplus of dresser mirrors again. Doh!

It was love at first sight with this piece, and worth the one hour drive to pick her up.  She belonged to a lady who obviously loved her, because she was in very good condiiton.  The drawer facings and sides were all pretty great, only the top needed some TLC.

I set about sanding off the entire top.  Because there was not a heavy finish on it, it came off pretty well.  One problem I did encounter was I noticed the sandpaper on my orbital kept 'gumming' up very frequently.  Everytime this happened, the sanding slowed down noticeably and I would change to a fresh piece and it would come off effortlessly until it gummed up again.  So there you go, if you find that your finish is not sanding off well, than it could be because your sand paper is gumming on you.

I suspect the 'gummy' stuff was old furnture polish residue.  In the end I gave the entire top (all 78" of it) an overview sand to remove just the layer of gunge.  I then changed out the sandpaper (again) and the finish came off pretty well then.

I custom mixed up some stain to best try and match the rest of the piece.  I used gel stain.  It turned pretty good.  I then finished with a thick coat of Danish Tung Oil finish which really looks wonderful and matches the low sheen look of the rest of the piece.

These drawers are super-duper long, so the were catching a bit against the sides and each other, so I got the orbital out again and planed them a bit.

I cleaned up the rest of the dresser, and used gel stain to dab at some of the smaller blemishes.  I wanted to keep as much of the original finish as I could.

Next up were the nightstands.  Again, underneath a layer of mould, they were in awesome condition (apart from the tops again).

I used some retro material I picked up for $1 a metre at my favorite restore and lined the drawers.

I sanded back the tops only, and refinished them using the same steps as the long dresser.  The sand paper didn't gum up this time though, so I assume it didn't get the lavish furniture polish treatment that the main dresser did.

I really love this set with the long skinny drawers and the low look.  The credenza is only 27" tall. Very streamlined.

This is for sale on my ETSY shop

Very Whitewashed Grey Dresser

This dresser was a long and drawn out affair (think Victor and Nikky from Y&R)  I began by painting it a light blue, but the finished effect looked ill suited to anything but a nursery.  The plan was to have it in our bedroom, so nursery was definitely out of the question.

Phase two was to paint over the blue with grey.  It looked better.  A little.  But it still didn't have any pazzaz and it just didn't quite get me excited.

Phase three was to whitewash over the grey, ok I started to like it a little more, but it needed some extra contrast in my mind, bring on Phase four..

Phase four was to stain the top a very very dark chocolate (almost black) to amp up the contrast a bit.

It is a great addition to the muted tones of our bedroom and provides ample storage for Mr. Chuckles' unmentionables.

The cute vintage pictures are framed advertisements from old 1950s 'Life' magazines passed down to us from Mr. Chuckle's grandfather. I love the one of Santa holding a typewriter.

A close up of the whitewash technique.  I painted over the knobs as well, and then did some light distressing to show the brass through.  

I haven't decided if I will distress the dresser.  What do you think?