Hope My Ganglion Cyst Doesn't Come Back....Oh And A Dresser Re-Do!

Yesterday, I refinished a dresser.  Last time I refinished a dresser (2 in one week) I got one of these.  Gross, right?!?  I know!  And, it hurt, like really bad.  I couldn't use my wrist for almost a week and they put me on a steroid treatment to help it go away.  So, needless to say, I was a little nervous about picking up the spray paint again but I really want to finish my master bedroom so I soldiered on!  Like I said, I've already refinished two dressers for my bedroom (I'll post pictures of those later).  This was the third and final piece of big furniture that I needed to redo for the room.  The dresser is going to be used as Dave's nightstand.  Before I go into detail on what I did, let me give you a little background about the room.

Our room is relatively small for a master bedroom, (who am I kidding, our whole house is small!) and there isn't a lot of storage.  So, we need everything to serve more then one purpose.  You following me?  So instead of having cute little nightstands that just have a couple books on them and some accessories, I needed some serious storage as well.  So I decided to use smaller dresser's as nightstands.  This post is about Dave's nightstand, but I'll have to put some pictures on of mine as well (it was a steal!  and it looks soooo pretty).  The other furniture in the room is painted Rust-oleum's Heirloom White, but for Dave's I wanted something masculine, something more just for him, because let's face it, the rest of the room is all about me!

Here's the dresser, I forgot to get a good before shot so I quickly took some while I was sanding:

You get the basic idea, right?  It was just your standard brown dresser with straight lines.  I LOVE straight lines.  I'm not really a curvy kind of girl.  The dresser is solid wood with a wood veneer over it.  Not a huge fan of the wood veneer, but the drawers were dovetailed and for 30 bucks (craigslist find.  gotta love craigslist!), I figured I could work with it.

When you're working with veneer, you're not going to get down to bare wood.  I did in some parts probably because the veneer was old and wearing thin.  There was also some water damage on the top.  I researched ways to fix that and replace the veneer, etc, but with three little kids and a limited budget I decided just to embrace the dresser's imperfections.  I am trying to adhere to the Nester's motto, "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!"  It's not easy for me to do that because I'm a perfectionist at heart, but after some time in therapy and some very helpful blue pills, I'm getting there.  Okay, sorry, I digress.  My perfectionist tendencies is a whole other post so back to the dresser!  Next up:

When you're sanding veneer, all you'll get is that chalky look.  You can see on the edges how it did actually get down to the bare wood.  See that stuff on the side of the dresser?  At some point, this dresser had tape all over it.  Why?  Don't know, don't care.  I pulled out some Krud Kutter and got to work getting all that sticky stuff off.

Krud Kutter + paper towels + old fashioned elbow grease = MAGIC!  Wa la!  Gunk be gone.  After removing the gunk I had to sand again because the areas that were sticky didn't get sanded.

After I finished sanding, I cleaned up the dresser and then we moved it into the garage so I could start painting.  Now let me tell you, I love spray paint.  Like, seriously LOVE. IT.  About 2 years ago, I attempted to redo our old nightstands.  I painted them with a foam brush.  It was time consuming and frustrating because I could see the brush strokes.  I made a lot of mistakes when I was doing those nightstands.  I didn't sand it at all very well, I didn't use any primer, and I didn't wait for the paint to really dry.  Those nightstands got ruined the first time we used them, things stuck to the paint and when removed they took the paint with them.  I was very upset, however, I am very grateful for that experience because I learned a lot.  So, with this dresser, after sanding thoroughly, I started to prime.

For the first layer of primer I used Kilz primer.  This stuff is awesome.  It covers everything and helps mask any smells that your furniture may have absorbed from it's previous owner.  Priming is so important if you want your furniture to last.  I wouldn't recommend skipping this step.  Another step I wouldn't recommend that you skip is sanding after you've primed.  Seriously.  I was worried about spray painting furniture because it can leave a bumpy finish, however if you sand using a fine grit sandpaper after priming your finish will be as smooth as butter!

After using the Kilz primer I did do one coat of Rust-oleum Gray primer.  I used a darker color on this dresser and I didn't want to have to do a lot of coats to cover the white primer.  I didn't even need to sand after the second layer of primer.  The finish was still perfectly smooth from the previous sanding.

Rust-oleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover 2X in Dark Walnut with a Satin finish.  I love this stuff and would highly recommend this brand.

The final step is to seal your paint job with a protective finish.  I like to use Minwax's Polycrylic Protective Finish.  This stuff is great because it comes in a spray, is water based, and can be safely used over paint.  It does cost about 10 bucks a can, but oh so worth it!  I do 2 coats of this on my furniture. A word of caution, be careful when you use it because it will spit on your furniture.  I don't know any other way to describe it, but when it spits it will leave drops on your paint job that will dry and will be noticeable in certain light.  I have yet to find a way to stop the spitting but I did find a way to minimize it.  Be very, very slow and if it starts to spit, stop spraying and wipe your finger off.

Another word of caution, don't ask your husband (who really just wants to be playing his video game, but is trying to be tolerant supportive of your many projects) to help.  Chances are in his impatient efficient way of thinking, fast and thick are better than slow and steady.  After his help, your drawers and all your hard work will have been spit on multiple times and will be swimming in protective finish.  When corrected, he will get frustrated, and you will vow to never ask him to help you spray paint again, which may have been his whole goal from the beginning.  So, listen to me and save yourself the aggravation joy of having your husband help you.

Instead of replacing the pulls with new ones, I decided to spray paint the original pulls with Rust-oleum Hammered in Brown.  At first I wanted to replace the pulls, but the only pulls I found, that would work were about 7 bucks a pull.  I didn't have another 28 dollars in the budget to replace the hardware, so I turned to a 5 dollar can of spray paint.  I wasn't sure if I would like the outcome, but I did!  I LOVE IT!  I don't know if I will ever replace these.  The pulls used to have a dirty gold color, which I wasn't really digging so this is much better.  And as you will see below, the finished project looks fantastic!  At least I think so, and that's really all that matters right, since I'm the one who has to live with it.

Here is the finished product!  I really love it and I am so happy about the extra storage it is going to provide!  I lined all the drawers with contact paper.  It just makes it feel cleaner to me.  Dave has already filled the drawers with his stuff and our room is getting less cluttered and more organized!  I have so many more projects to do for our master bedroom makeover, so look forward to future posts and I can't wait till it's all done and I can do the Big Reveal!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  Also, if you like what you're reading please become a follower and like me on facebook, so I know you're out there!  Thanks!


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