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!