Minty Antique Gentlemen's Dresser

 

 

 
It's no surprise that I love mint.  I have done a lot of mint pieces, and I particularly love it on antique dressers. 

 
When I found this piece I knew I had to have it because it is the matching companion of another piece I already have (currently stored away awaiting a makeover).  Mine is the ladies, and this one was the matching gentlemen's dresser

 
I gave the piece a good sand and repaired a few minor issues with some glue, clamps and wood filler.  But given its age, it was in good condition.

 
I custom mixed this colour using some greens and whites that I already had on my sagging paint shelf.  My last two mint pieces were more of a muted mint which I achieved by adding some gray and brown into the mix, but for this one, I had a vision of it in a nursery and wanted it bright and high-spirited, so I skipped the gray and brown, and just mixed up the green and white together until I got a nice bright mint I was happy with.  My camera is colour challenged, so I find the pictures don't 100% capture the colour.  Oh, the woes of blogging with less than average equipment.

 

Its hard to tell in the pictures, but this is a very tall dresser.  I love these old gentlemen's dresser with their great height.  It also has some nice detail on the drawers and the big chunky turned legs add lots of pizazz.

 

 
The insides of the top two drawers obviously got used a lot and were showing some wrinkles, so I botoxed them up with some mint/white floral paper that I had on hand. I love little touches like this when remaking pieces, its like adding little splashes of personality.

 
I used chalkpaint, three coats in total, I also primed the areas that I had touched up with wood filler first, when the paint dried, I lightly distressed the edges to mimic some natural wear, and also to tie in with some of the original damage to the finish that I left alone (mostle some chipping on the top two drawers).  Character, right?

 
I finished with a clear wax, and I didn't buff it that much as I wanted a really flat finish.  Im still in two minds about poly vs wax.  I do find that poly gives a much cleaner, and far less streaky finish, but on imperfect antique finishes that are supposed to look 'aged' I don't mind the unpredictability of wax as much.

I updated the knobs by adding these larger wooden knobs that are painted an off-white.  I didn't think the tear-drop style knobs would look as good with the mint colour. I also applied some pastewax to the inside of the drawers (which are not on runners), its impressive how easier a drawer will glide with a dab of wax! 

Here is the before!

A Tall Frenchman in Green

This dapper dresser was in dire need of some love when I picked him up. 

He belonged to a young girl who had a fascination with graffiti, named Brittany.  I know this, because she practiced those graffiti skills all over this poor dresser. My powers of deduction tell me Brittany liked The Back Street Boys, was in love with a boy named Brandon, and the stickers plastered all over the side indicate she enjoyed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

 Needless to say, a lot of prep work was involved in making a blank canvas and undoing some of Brittany’s, (ahem), art skills. 

 I had mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to paint in green.  I custom mixed up this colour and admit that I tweaked it a bit with each additional coat to get a shade I was happy with. It was a bit of an evolving process to get the tone just right (not too bright, not too rustic) It reminds me a little bit of ASCP 'Florence'.

I topped with a touch of black glaze and did a light distressing because I felt it needed to be ‘aged’ up just a touch.

Here is a glimpse of just some of the creative flair young Brittany possessed.

Antique Dresser in Grey

I love this style of dresser!  I do a little tap dance every time I see one at a reasonable price.  Ratta-tatta tat! They are so delicate and airy, and those little turned legs just warm my heart.

This gem was in pretty good shape.  She was missing a few pieces of veneer here and there, but it was nothing that a little bit of wood filler couldn't fix.  

I custom mixed up this grey using some darker grey and white paint.  I knew I wanted it to be a fairly light, almost pastel type grey.  It can be hard to eyeball it when mixing your own colours without a chip or sample to go off, but in this case, I am pretty happy with the shade.

The top was in wonderful condition apart from a few water marks.  Because of this, I gave a light coat of zinsser BIN to the top only, just to lock in that water stain.

I did three coats of the grey all over, two probably would of sufficed but just to be safe I did a third.

My grey paint is a flat, and the white was a satin, so together these two paints made the perfect sheen.  It looks a bit like chalk paint with the wax applied, a lovely, yet very soft sheen.

I love the original hardware, ornate and delicate.  Plus I LOVE ring pulls.  I decided to paint them out white though as I wanted a super romantic and soft feel.  The white contrasts great with the grey.

This is my first piece of furniture with casters.  Kinda neat, but those little suckers like to sneak away from you when they aren't planted on top of a carpet.  Miss Do-As-I-Please keeps jumping up on it for fair-ground rides.  If she wasn't a cat she would be screaming 'Yipeeeeeeeee'.  Nothing beats furniture surfing!

Here is the before, the light patches are wood filler.

All from me!




linking up to:
missmustardseed
http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com
http://www.redouxinteriors.com
http://www.domestically-speaking.com/2013/09/195th-power-paint-party-popp.html