Saturday, January 12, 2013

Thrift store gold!

A month or so ago I was out thrift store shopping, and I came upon a dresser and a circular end table. I paid $29 for the dresser which is real wood and in great condition, the end table however is in need of TLC lots of it!

So my idea for this dresser was to turn it into a TV stand. I LOVE pinterest and I am always coming across pins where they have turned a dresser into a TV stand. My plan is to remove the 1st drawer and turn it into a shelf. I have had an ikea TV stand for the last couple years, I hate the thing but it was what I could afford at the time. So back to the dresser, it sat in my laundry room for about a month while I considered what I was going to do. One night I decided I am going to finally do something with this. I attend college and had to go back in a couple days and I wanted to get it done before then. 

Here is what the dresser looked like when purchased....


I started sanding it before I realized, crap I need pictures :). I read a lot of posts about how to paint wood furniture and the prep work that goes with it. So, I went to the store and bought a Sanding Block and some protective eye wear. I took all the drawers out and sanded all the surfaces, enough that when I was finished the piece was no longer shiny. 


After sanding I wiped it down with a damp rag to pick up all the sand/dust. 

I love dark, masculine, and earthy tones when it comes to paint and furniture. I decided that I was going to paint this dresser black but leave the drawers brown, because I seen a post on pinterest where someone had done that with a buffet and I loved it. 

The paint I already had on hand from some shelves I had painted for my office. Its recommended that you use a primer, preferably two coats when painting furniture, to prevent peeling and what not. The paint I had already had a primer included (it was more expensive but worth it). 

I painted it in the evening while we were watching a movie. I would paint a coat and come back after a half hour to an hour and paint another coat. I did three coats on this.


I am very impatient and all about instant gratification so after the last coat was pretty much dry I had to put the drawers in to see how it looked....


I wasn't happy with it...I felt like there was not enough black breaking up the brown, so I experimented with one of the drawers, and I chose to paint the raised parts of the drawers, and I did this by using painters tape around the edges before painting. I highly recommend using the tape.


I loved the blocking of the drawers but I still felt like it needed something else, so the strip down the middle of the drawers had to be painted too. Here is my finished product ( well not completely finished, I am still trying to find drawer pulls that I like, as well as there are some repairs needed to the bottom of the drawers)


I absolutely LOVE it and couldn't wait to get it in the living room, but I had to wait and make sure it was completely dry before moving it and putting anything on it. (No instant gratification in that :) ) So here is the final product set up....


I am so in love with the piece and everyone who has seen it, is astounded that not only was it a dresser but that I re-purposed it! And frankly I love to save money, buying something like this in a store would have cost me well over $250 because its real wood. I only paid $29 for the dresser and probably will have another $20 invested in pulls and hardware. Can't beat that deal! Hope you enjoyed my first post, I am working on the end table now so hopefully it will be posted soon!

~Nikki~



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