Rehab Therapy

At the end of last summer my mom pushed a piece of furniture on me that didn't sell at her garage sale.  It was a piece I'm pretty sure she bought in the late 70s or early 80s as it was a chiffarobe for our nurseries when we were babies.  It has sat in my house for the past several months as I've been unsure what to do with it.  I have had some success with painting furniture, but definitely needed some direction and pointers.  Well, being the Pinterest junkie that I am, I finally decided it was time to stop pinning and start rehabing this thing.  And we really needed a dresser for our room so I decided it was time to buy a dresser and redo them together.  We made our first ever Craig's List purchase and I bought the dresser with mirror for $65.  The dresser was actually in really good shape - it just wasn't my style.  I thought that was a bargain.  Hopefully, the end result makes it all worth it! 

This is the piece that my mom gave me -the chiffarobe

This is the dresser and mirror we bought on Craig's List.

As you can see, two pretty outdated pieces, but in good shape.


And this was my original inspiration picture.  I just love white furniture and I really like the dark stained top with white drawers.

I love me some dark oil-rubbed bronze hardware, and I ordered it online.  Found what I wanted on Amazon (the brand is Cosmas), but found it cheaper on eBay ($29.41 for all the hardware for the two pieces of furniture including shipping, which includes 8 drawer pulls, and 6 knobs- not bad!).

I have painted furniture before, but turned to the Internet to find the best way to get the look I wanted.  I read a lot about chalk paint, which goes on without requiring any prep work (no sanding!), but I decided I wasn't sure about it. It is expensive and I figured I could get my desired look without it.  I would like to try it, or a home recipe of chalk paint with another project though.

The one tricky thing is that my Craig's List dresser had some kind of finish on the top of it. Some kind of laminate or veneer.  I was not sure how to remove it, how it would sand, and how the stain would take to it.

So I started by removing all the old, outdated hardware.

And then sanding everything.  Thankfully, we had the power hand sander that my brother Chris got Oliver last year.  Came in perfectly and saved some time

After I had washed it down, sanded it, dusted it all off, I was ready to prime.  Here's when I headed to the store to get what I needed:

Kilz primer (water based)
latex Behr paint in Creamy White
mini rollers & new brush
stain brush 
Polyeurethane (water based) - I used the brand Verathane
Stain (minwax ebony)

I primed everything with one coat.  I was then ready to try stain the top.  FAIL.  I didn't sand enough on the chiffarobe and my Craig's List dresser top posed a problem and wouldn't take stain.  Decided I was not going back to store to find a chemical remover for whatever it had on the top of it, and I went to my backup plan of all white.  So I sanded off all the stain and primed again.  I was ok with white tops on these.

I did 2 coats of paint and it looked so good.  I had considered distressing it with some sanding on the edges, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  It just looked so crisp and clean, and I liked this look too much.  Maybe for the next project!

After two coats of paint, I was read to apply the polyeurethane.  I was planning to do 2-3 coats of that.  Let me just say that the polyeurethane application seemed to go smoothly, but the next day it looked bad in parts.  Next time I will remember to apply it very, very thinly and watch for drips.  It is best to use a brush for staining (kind of bristly and less soft) and not a roller.  That was my mistake.  Too heavy on the poly.  After a big set back, everything was fixed up.  Let's just say I'm now an expert in stripping (not THAT kind of stripping) as well.  This whole project has been a definite reminder that if it's not done perfectly, I can't let it be and have to fix it all up.

I eventually applied 3 light coats of polyeurethane and that definitely gave it a more protective finish.  I attached all the hardware and voila!  I put it in my dining room for the moment, but it will make its way up to our bedroom soon.  Really happy with how it turned out!  Here are the after shots...

 

Here is the before and after

And the chiffarobe before and after...

I love the way it turned out too.  Ideally, I would still like to put another shelf on the right side to maximize what I can put in there, but I think it looks great.  Welcome to 2013.



This project broken down:
dresser & mirror (not shown): $65
chiffarobe:  free!
hardware for both:  $29
supplies: about $35-40 depending on what you already have (paint, primer, rollers, brush, sandpaper, rags, polyeurethane)

It turned out so well that I have already bought my next Craig's List purchase and am ready to tackle a piece for my dining room (a long dresser turned into buffet for only $20)!  It is therapeutic.  Can't wait...although Oliver seems less thrilled that I'm taking up all the space in the garage.