Wallpaper and Gray Dresser

 
A new piece to share!  This is part of a trio set which is solid wood.  Great vintage furniture. I love it.  I was very indecisive about what to do with this piece. I knew I wanted to do something a little more unique, but I wasn't feeling all that inspired.

 
During this time of quiet contemplation, Mr. Chuckles and I repainted a good portion of our house.  We went with a soft gray and also updated a geometric feature wall we have with some new colours.  It all turned out great (although it took the better part of a week).  One night, exhausted on the couch I was admiring my living room wall paper when I Eureka'd that it would look great on the dresser.

 
I still had a little bit left over from wallpapering the living room and decided to put it to use.  I first sanded and primed the drawer and then cut the wall paper so that the pattern was continuous over the three drawers.

 
I painted the opposite side of the drawers with a mid-tone gray that would pull the gray out of the paper.  I used chalkpaint as I wanted a soft romantic feel.

 
I painted the wrap of the piece in a soft gray, it pulls a little white in the pictures, but it is a very soft gray.

 
The original wood hardware was painted in the same soft gray as the wrap and protected with satin sheen polyacrylic.  I hand buffed the metal fastners to a soft gold.

 
The gray lines on the wallpaper has a lovely soft metallic reflective sheen which isn't remotely visible in this picture.

 

This is a before of the matching tallboy as I forgot to snap a before of the six-drawer.

Striking Turquoise Dresser

If you have looked through my blog, then you have seen a very similar piece before, ok, maybe even two.  I just love raised detailing on dressers, it adds such interest, especially once it is painted out.

I have a lot of natural light on this dresser, so it looks 'I need sunglasses' bright.  In reality it is quite a deep shade of turquoise, mostly blue, but with a subtle shade of green as well.

I left some of the wood to poke through on the detailing to add some depth.  I also did a bit of accenting with white and yellow.

The hardware was in really bad shape, I thought I was going to have to spray paint it, I started to give it a light sand so the paint would have something to grab onto, when I noticed it started to sparkle underneath.  It was quite magical, I just lightly sanded and in the process polished up the hardware.  This pic below shows the after and the before.

Traditional Union Jack

For this Union Jack dresser, I decided to go for a traditional colour scheme, opting for a darker blue.  I began by painting the entire body of the dresser white.  Then I taped off the blue and red sections.

I painted the top the same blue as the front, and then I washed a dark glaze over it to further age it.  I used custom chalk paint for this.  Actually a combo - ASCP in Pure White, and Reetiqued chalk paint in dark blue and deep red.  :)   I used the grout recipe.

UPDATE: I have since bought a big box of DAP plaster of paris and I can say hands down that it gives a smoother finish than my grout did.

I used regular painters tape for my lines.  Taping the dresser out definitely takes the loooongest amount of time.  Fortunately I was painting in my kitchen (Mr. Chuckles LOVES when I do that!)  so my pal, the tv, was able to keep me amused during the dry times. 

I did get some bleedthrough, but I use little sharp edged artists brushes to tidy everything up.

I decided to keep the hardware, as it was so aged and burnished that it gave the piece a really rustic vibe which I think suits these dressers. Im not sure I could have cleaned it up even if I wanted to!

Overall I'm pretty happy with it! And so is the 12 year old One Direction fan who's room in now resides in.  Just below their hearthrobby poster!