The Road to Crafty: GIrls' Bedroom Dresser

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

GIrls' Bedroom Dresser

WOO HOO!!! I FINALLY finished it! I can't even tell you how good it feels to check this project off of my list...and move it out of my unfinished dining room ;P

We knew that we wanted to put the girls together in the same room, but we had a dresser with 3 drawers between the two of them. If you have girls, you know that this is absolutely not enough for both of them ;P

So, we started looking for something inexpensive because we also knew that we couldn't afford to buy something brand new.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I LOVE the Facebook Buy-Sell-Trade pages. I just threw it out there that I was looking for a dresser, and within a day, we had found this beauty:

It had great bones, was SUPER sturdy, and at $150 for an 8 drawer dresser AND mirror, I couldn't pass it up. Originally, I wanted it to be less than $100, but I realize now that for something as high quality as this, that was pretty unrealistic.

I started by using a sanding sponge and scuffing the surface.

I wiped it down really well, then primed it with the waterbased Zinsser primer - I think it's called Bullseye 123. I did 3 coats of that - only because I decided after the first 2 that I wanted to buy new handles and had to fill in the old holes with sandable/stainable wood filler and drill new ones. I can't remember the brand, but it came in a tube and I just squirted it into the holes and scraped the excess off.

I started out with Sherwin Williams ProClassic Alkyd Enamel - I'll be honest. I wasn't that impressed. It was supposed to be sturdy like oil based but with a water cleanup. I thought it was really watery in consistency and I just didn't like its coverage. So in the end, I switched to my usual Behr semi-gloss that we bought for all the trim in our house...and I LOVE IT!!! Once it dried to the touch, I put the drawers back in but didn't close them all the way so that the paint can fully cure for the next week or so. I put the handles on and they are so much more amazing than I thought.

I bought the top handles at Hobby Lobby, and the bottom handles from the etsy seller Violette Slippers. They came distressed with off-white chalk paint and I loved the look, but really needed it to be white to match the dresser. I just painted some of the Zinsser primer over top of it and used a damp paper towel to wipe off the majority of it.