The Dresser

Here is a dresser that my Mother-in-Law gave us. It was the very first bedroom suite her and Jake's dad had when they were married, which I think is pretty cool. It is in great shape and is a well made piece of furniture. But, as you can see, it is not much to look at. So, I decided to give it a make over!

I started out by taking the hardware off and then lightly sanding it. I knew that I could not just paint this piece without sanding it with a high-powered sander or priming it, so I decided to go with primer. I had heard about this Kilz spray primer on a couple of blogs and decided to try it out. It worked so well! It was also super easy to apply. I just sprayed on a few coats and then sanded it down a bit after it was dry. The thing that I have learned with spray, though, is that it is hard to get it really even. The one thing about this particular primer is that it takes a lot to coat something. The dresser took 2 entire bottles.

Here is the dresser with the primer

Jake wanted to get all new hardware, but I did some research and found that the hardware we liked ran from $4-$12. This dresser requires 12 handles, so it would have cost us quite a bit to get all new hardware. I actually love the original handles and finally convinced Jake that I could make them look great. I bought a metallic silver spray paint and painted all of the handles.

After I primed the dresser, I used a flat black paint over the entire thing. Wow, it took forever, but it turned out so great!! I really like the way the flat black looks with the shiny silver handles. I also painted a mirror to go with it.

Here is the finished product!

Here are a few things I learned from this project:

-Good primer is a MUST

-The finish does make a difference. Flat has a completely different look than gloss, etc.

-Spray paint takes a lot less time than paint, but is less even.

-Polyurethane anything that is going to get a lot of use

Until next time,

J and M

Very First Furniture Painting Experience

Disclaimer: I do not plan on starting a blog devoted to DIY since I do not have the time, patience, or money, but I thought it would be fun to record my experiences. Maybe some of you fellow amateur DIYers can learn from my mistakes.

My Mother-in-law gave me this coffee table for my house with my college friends. It has been a great coffee table and I actually really like the style. I decided it would be a good "color pop" piece in our new apartment. I wasn't quite sure how to go about painting a piece of furniture, so I did some research. I found that you do not always have to sand a piece before painting it, which was a relief because I do not have a sander. I also found that you can spray paint furniture rather than use plain old paint. I also decided I wanted to paint it blue, not a baby blue, but a light, greenish blue. I wandered the aisles of Lowes today trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I found ready made Valspar paint samples in a color I really liked. So I decided to go with regular paint instead of trying the spray paint.

I started by lightly (very lightly) sanding the coffee table with a sandpaper cube. I decided to forgo primer, because I wanted a worn look with the wood showing through. Not sanding first really worked for this piece because I liked the wear and tear. After I sanded it, I wiped it off and began painting it in long strokes with a regular paintbrush, simple as that.

Or so I though. Little did I know it was going to storm right in the middle of this project. I was under my porch, but the wind blew the rain in right after I was done with my first coat. I kept moving the table, but old house means leaky roofs and water all over the table. Finally, the rain slowed and I was able to salvage my piece. I really liked the wood showing through after the first coat, but continued on to the second. I really liked how the paint looked, but I was not sure about the color. It turned out more baby blue than I was hoping.

so here is the before

And after

I wasn't sure how I felt about the table at this point and was starting to question my creative ability. I thought maybe I needed to do something else with it. Then, Jake came home and told me how much he hated it. He thought that it was too blue, which I agreed with. So the next day I headed out to Lowes (again) and bought some glaze. I sanded around the edges of the table to give it the aged look. Then, I mixed the clear glaze with some black paint that I had. I then glazed the table by painting on the glaze and then immediately wiping it off. I am so happy with the way it turned out and so is Jake. It looks great in our apartment and gives the right amount of color to the room. I consider my first furniture painting a success!

Here it is!

Until next time,

J and M