Taaa Daaaa! The dresser, revealed!

It's actually been over a week that the dresser has been sitting pretty in the basement, but life has a way of getting away from us, doesn't it? 

A quick recap: Here is the dresser in it's original state:

It's ugly, scratched, smelly, and doesn't work well. I did sort of like the wood detail in the middle drawers, but my daughter was liking the idea of white paint more than restaining them. 

I'll admit, I have a love/dislike thing going on with wood. Not just wood furniture, but also wood floors, wood on the walls, wood on the ceilings. Wood cabinets, etc. Hubby has a love/love affair going on with them, so I'm not allowed to paint much - but the house was built in the 80's, and it all has that sort of orange color cast to it. I love wood, but not the color orange. I'm working on getting some other shades into the house. For example, dark stained wood, which is what we chose for the top of this dresser - that way, I could still be saving some of the real wood, but also not have orange, and have it be something my daughter would love.

So here she is, in her (almost finished) glory! We think she is gorgeous now, a huge improvement over the sad little cabinet we had at the beginning of the summer! 

As you can see, we opted to leave the bling all the same shade of white, instead of going with the second shade. Somehow that still made it look dirty, even though I had decided not to use it as a glaze. I hit the drawer pulls with spray paint - they have a tiny little bit of sparkle to them now, and match the top of the dresser quite nicely.

I admitted above that the dresser is not quite finished - I still have to give her a couple of coats of polycrylic on the top, to ensure that it has a durable finish on it. My daughter plans to use this as a buffet, which means that things will likely end up being put on the top. Also, I want to spray the little feet on the legs with the same color that the drawer pulls are, but that involves moving furniture around so that I can access them better, and taping and papering to ensure that paint only goes where I want it...and I still have 3 months til Christmas! 

So now for a quick peek at what looks like it might be my next project, since it is also a Christmas present for a daughter, but she is moving at the end of October and needs to be able to take it with her - 

Nice details, right? It is different, because it is mdf wood covered in laminate, but I still like the details. I plan to break out my brand new paint sprayer for this one, and use the slightly darker shade of white I didn't use on the first dresser. I believe she will love it!

oooh, the dresser is almost done!!

I'm getting so excited to show this! I feel like it is taking me forever to do this, but I am leaving lots of time for the paint to completely cure and harden up so that no little bumps or handling with create scratches or dings. Today, getting ready for the final white coat on the drawer fronts and cabinet, I just couldn't wait anymore and had to try dry-brushing the darker shade of white onto the medallions and raised details to see what it would look like. 

I was envisioning something darker, and was afraid it would be too stark a difference. I've grown to really like the way the medallions look on the drawers in white. I wasn't sure whether they would have that subtle appeal if they were dark. Here's a reminder of what they look like all white: 

Remember, this still needs another coat of the white paint, which will really make it sparkle. I hit the raised bits with the other shade while I only had the first coat on because I wanted to be able to just paint over it without any risk.

I should have not been worried about how dark the second color was going to be, though. The lighting in my basement is really, really not good. It's really horrible, to be honest - I have one bare light bulb on the ceiling with a pull cord to turn it on, and a lamp balanced on one of the shelving units near where I am doing this work. The other section of the basement has much better lighting - fluorescent, but much brighter and more of it. This side was so dark I had a hard time really seeing the second color when I put it on the raised rib there. I dry brushed a bit of the color over the top of the medallions to see how I liked it. I had originally planned on glazing it and brushing it off, but that wouldn't put the color on the bumped out part, but on the nooks and crannies instead. Plus, I wasn't sure if it would make the drawer look dirty - that's why I really don't like some of the waxing that I've seen over chalk paint, because it really makes the pieces look like the owners couldn't be bothered to wash away the grime.

As I said, I just did this quickly to get a sense of the color difference. I started out using a natural bristled brush, but had to get rid of that quickly because it was leaving little hairs all over my project! 

So anyway, I have painted over this with the final coat of white paint. You will have to wait and see the final reveal of the project to see what we decided to go with. I plan to let this dry a couple of days and then do the polycrylic coating on the top. That will likely take a couple of coats...and then I'll put it all back together, put the hardware back on, take a couple of photos, cover it all up with a sheet or something and move on to the next project. I have several lined up to choose from!

No such thing as permanent

So while searching on Pinterest last year, I found a really cool example of DIY table setting decorations using a Sharpie marker - at least, that is what it said in the text accompanying the pictures. 

I read reviews of the process before attempting it myself. The reviews said not to use regular Sharpie, but instead use the oil-based kind, then put it in the cool oven, turn it to 350, bake it for 30 minutes and let it cool in the oven. 

I bought a mug at Savers, and used a gold oil-based Sharpie to write "Don't let the muggles get you down!" on the side. I baked as directed, and then proceeded to use it, wash it in the dishwasher, reheat it in the microwave to test how it would stand up. Turns out, not so well. 

I returned to the internet to see what else I could use, since I'd already purchased sets I wanted to do up for the girls Christmas presents. I found paint markers specifically designed for using on glass and ceramic, and followed the directions - which are, unsurprisingly, the same as the ones I'd followed for the Sharpie mug.

This one was for the left-handed daughter - it has the names of the songs from One Direction around the border of the plate.  

This one is for the right-handed daughter, and has the names of the songs from Twenty-one Pilots around the border of the plate.















I delivered the presents last December, but based on the condition of the Sharpie mug, I recommended hand washing instead of putting them into the dishwasher. The girls decided to begin using the mugs shortly after receiving them, and they were very good about hand washing...for a while. It has now been 8 months. The plates are still pristine, because they have not used them yet. The cups - the cups are another story.

Sufficient to say that even paint marketed for glass and ceramic is not necessarily permanent. Lesson learned.

making progress!

 We had a lovely time at the fair, and then yesterday got together with hubby's cousins and their families at the beach. It was also a lovely time, although it was NOT beach weather - everyone was dragging out sweatshirts and shivering in the breeze, and the fog that rolled in around suppertime was as thick as the soup that descended on the town in The Mist, though if there were any aliens in it we happily departed before they made land.

Today I dedicated several hours to progressing on the dresser. First, I used a brush to put on the primer coat on the drawers. One problem with this primer is this: it's oil-based white primer. Ok, I tried to cover two problems with one phrase - it's oil-based, which means that it needs oil-base clean-up. I have "smarter paint thinner" which is white - which means that I cannot tell if I have the paint out of the brush or not! If it was latex, it would not require that level of clean-up - but it would not be as good a product, either.

This is the drawer with a layer of primer on it. I'm beginning to see what I was going for! 

































I wasn't too fussed about getting the primer on perfectly, since I'm planning on two coats of paint. I was wondering about sanding after the primer and before the paint, but daughter 2 said I shouldn't need it, and I really wanted to get on with the painting. Not that she is an expert, but as I said, I really wanted to get on with the painting...she was just the sort of agreement I needed! =)

Also a question was whether I should paint the back or not. Hubby said yes, but when I posed the question on Hometalk, one response was that I should be careful of how wet I get the back, so not to warp it, as it is not real wood. 

I ended up talking myself into it. Daughter 2 noted that they want to use the dresser/buffet as an island to separate the living room from the kitchen, so the back will be seen. I hit it with one coat of paint, and will leave it at that.

One thing I learned after I started painting with my lovely, sort of expensive, brush, is that you shouldn't use a brush you used with oil-based paint with latex paint. So, I went off to the store to get plain mineral spirits so that clean-up will be easier, and a new brush to use with the hybrid paint. I have labeled the first brush after cleaning it, and we will keep that one for the primer. Oh, and I also need to find some glass jar to keep the cleaning solution in, because the plastic cup I had it sitting in for an hour was distinctly melted looking, though I did catch the issue before it proceeded to leak all over the place!

While I was working on that, the drawers were drying. I was able to give the whole thing a coat of paint with the hybrid paint I picked out - it's Benjamin Moore paint, it cleans up like a latex but hardens like an oil-based paint. Because it's a hybrid, you can't mix anything like Floetrol in to help reduce brush lines. I'm hoping that it is flow-able enough to not need help. This is the first coat. I used a roller to put this on - my plan is to lightly sand it before doing the second coat, which will be with a brush. Rollers leave a lot of little air bubble marks, although they did smooth out quite a bit from what they looked like when I first rolled the paint on.

 I have also moved some of the stuff around in the basement to make some more room, while I was waiting for paint to dry. See that I moved the air conditioners out of the way? They were on the floor at the end of the dresser. I put them up on the table, where they belong. =) Slowly but surely...slowly but surely.

So I think there will be no more step by step pictures of the dresser unless something goes wrong and I think it will help someone to mention it. Next post on the dresser should be a big reveal of the completed project!