DIY Dresser Makeover

After refinishing our bed frame the other weekend, we were excited to move on to an old dresser we had. The dresser had just been sitting downstairs and really served no purpose. The only reason we still had it was because my wife kept telling me about how she wanted to refinish it and put it in our bedroom.

A couple of weeks ago, we received an email from Ikea saying the dressers we had in our bedroom were being recalled. They were being recalled because of the potential hazard of them falling over on children. We decided to be reimburse for the dressers and this gave us the motivation we had been lacking to finally refinish the dresser. If we didn't refinish it now, we would have a stack of clothes on our bedroom floor until we did! I am a little to OCD for that to happen!

Material:

• Screwdriver
• Sandpaper
• Rust-Oleum Chalk paint
• Rust-Oleum wax
• Paintbrush or Small Roller
• Rags or old T-shirt

To Do:

1. The first thing we did was take all of the drawers out of the dresser. Once the drawers were out, I took a screwdriver and removed all of the hardware from the drawers. There are two doors on the dresser that we took off as well to refinish.
2. After all the hardware was removed, there were a couple of places that needed to be sanded. We took sandpaper and just smoothed out several spot along the bottom were the dogs had scratched it. 

   

   Before and the dog scratches on the bottom

3. Once we had all the spots smoothed out and sanded down, we needed to make sure it was clean. We took an old Tshirt and cut it into several pieces. We used one of pieces to dust off all of the saw dust from sanding and from it just sitting in the basement for so long. You want to make sure it is clean before you start to paint. 
4. The next step, is to start painting! Again, we choose to go with the Rust-Oleum "Linen White" Chalk paint to match our bed frame. My wife did pretty much all of the painting and waxing again! The dresser, like the bedframe, ended up taking four coats of paint until my wife was satisfied with the look. For this project, because it had a lot of smooth surfaces, she decided to use a small roller for the top, the sides, and the face of the drawers. For all the smaller parts she filled in using a paintbrush. The four coats of paint took a whole day and she did the fourth coat the next day. 

   

   After the first coat

5. After the last coat of paint was dried my wife went around and gently sanded some of the corners. She does this to give it a little more of a rustic look. She did the same thing with the bed frame to make the two pieces flow together. She takes fine sandpaper and just lightly sands some of the corners and edges of the dresser. 
6. After the fourth coat of paint dried, my wife took another piece of an old T-shirt and applied the wax to all the painted pieces. She rubbed the T-shirt in the wax and then you rub it over the chalk paint and just rub it in until you get the finish you desire. You do not have to apply the wax, but it gives it a smoother finish and it doesn't feel as chalky at the end. She ended up doing two coats of the wax just to get a smooth and nice finish.

   

   After the fourth coat

7. We let the wax sit for the afternoon before putting the hardware back on and it was finished!

Together in our room

Once the hardware was back on the last thing we needed to do was move the dresser upstairs to our bedroom. Once we moved it upstairs and had it next to our bed frame, I was amazed at how good it looked. It looked nice in the basement, but being next to the bed made it pop and looks stunning! Like I said in my previous post, I would highly recommend chalk paint to anyone if you have never used it. It simplifies the process and produces incredible results!

The final product!