Dresser before & after

I wanted to redecorate an area of my living room and knew I wanted a dresser-like piece of furniture there. That's was all I knew for sure. So I set out to find a real, solid wood dresser, at - where else? A garage sale.

This is the dresser as I purchased it - for $35 at a garage sale. It's solid wood, it's made extremely well, and it's heavy as hell. It's actually a changing table/baby dresser and wasn't what I was looking for, but since it was the only dresser I saw at over 12 different garage sales, I purchased this one (at the last one I went to) and decided it would do.



I've painted furniture before, but since I actually cared how this one turned out (lol), I decided to follow a tutorial on how to best paint a dresser. The one I found and used, was this one here. I didn't follow her instructions to the letter, but I did do almost all of the steps as she did. I gathered all the products on the supplies list, rolled up my sleeves, said a prayer, and got to work.

This is what the dresser looked like after 3 cans of primer, which I was at least smart enough to do outside. I primed it so I wouldn't have to strip the varnish it, thus speeding the process along at a brisk pace. I thought it would be easy to work with since it was spray, but it was a bit of a pain... let's just say there was a little sanding involved AFTER I primed it.



My intention was to paint the whole thing the light mustard color but while painting, I decided to paint only the front panels and then go back and paint the strip around them - but when I took a step back, I decided I really liked the white trim edge... and went the next day to buy off white paint for them! (the white you see is actually just the primer that hadn't yet been painted)



... and this is the finished product! I *LOVE* how it turned out. I purchased drawer pulls on eBay for $4 each - amber glass pumpkin shaped knows with an aged brass trim on them. Total knock-offs of something fabulous, but they work for me. I finished the whole thing with two coats of a clear coat to protect it. THAT was a pain. But all in all, this turned out to be THE BEST dresser ever, and it has *BOATLOADS* of storage in it. I heart my new piece of furniture. ♥



And the before & after side by side (drumroll please....)




This is the before picture of what one of the walls in my living room looked like, and the after, with my new garage sale love :)