Painted Dresser

A few years ago I bought a matching armoire, chest of drawers, and nightstand for $150 from craigslist. The seller said they were from the 1920′s and had been in his family’s camp forever (which I’m sure is underwater right about now).

—Actually, let me take a side note right here to say that we are really feeling grateful that we aren’t underwater ourselves. We live very near the Mississippi River and were so nervous about it that we cancelled plans to go to an out of town wedding this weekend. Thanks to the opening of the Morganza Spillway it looks like Baton Rouge will be fine, but our hearts go out to those in the Atchafalaya Basin whose sacrifice kept us dry.—

I painted the nightstand using leftover paint from the dining room dresser (see that project here, and a whole post dedicated to this little nightstand here).

I first painted the armoire an awful, awful lilac. I was going for gray with lavender undertones but it went terribly awry. I painted over it with this bold aqua.

I thought it still looked a little “blah,” so I added a piece of lace I’d picked up at the thrift store for flair.

Just enough old-lady-ish-ness to make me smile.

Well, both of those projects were completed long before I started blogging, but until this weekend I still hadn’t gotten around to painting the matching chest of drawers. I call it Nick’s dresser since it’s on his side of the room, but I’ve actually taken over two of the drawers to house my sizeable sweater and cardigan collection, so I guess it’s really “ours.”

I think it’s awesome that you can make guesses about the items that have sat on top based on the discoloration.

I mixed the color for the armoire myself using paint I had on hand, but didn’t have enough left to paint the dresser, so I poured what I did have left over into a mason jar and painted a dab of it onto the lid, then brought the jar to Lowe’s and had it color matched to a quart of interior flat. I also had it matched to a quart of exterior flat, which is what I used to paint the front door, but for some reason it looks much darker there! Just to be sure I wouldn’t end up with a similar situation here, I painted a swatch of the matched paint over an inconspicuous spot on the armoire. It was such a close match that I couldn’t even spot the difference after it had dried, so the darker shade on the front door must have something to do with the light, or maybe the exterior vs. interior formula.

About six months ago, I bought a desk from Ikea that came in a big, flat box. I’ve held onto that piece of cardboard ever since because it’s purrrfect for sliding under whatever I’m painting.

This is what we looked like after removing the hardware and brushing on one extremely thin coat.

And after coat two…

Around this time I decided to break for a peanut butter sandwich and some Nate Berkus on the DVR (he had Carson Kressley on there-so funny and awesome). I came back a bit later and added a quick third coat to the top and front (the areas likely to get the most wear) and touched up only the thin spots on the sides (I love the flexibility afforded by flat paint to never worry about lap marks). I replaced the hardware once it was dry, pushed it back into place, and put all Nick’s clutter-collecting accoutrements back on top (read about that system here).

It’s pretty much impossible to capture both pieces together in the same shot, but they sit directly across from each other and having them painted the same hue really adds a sense of symmetry to the room. Someday soon I am going to do a post that shows more of our bedroom because I’m really proud of the way I’ve layered colors and textures in there so far. But of course, it’s still a work in progress. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Painted the armoire

Reupholstered the hope chest

Brought in new bedding

And painted the chest of drawers

And here’s what I’ve still got left to do:

• new bedding
• lamp repair
• painting a dresser
• hanging artwork
• a DIY throw pillow or two

And while this isn’t all that exciting, I also need to SEW MORE CURTAINS!!! I got the most important ones covered up, but there are still a few naked windows in our bedroom and I find myself feeling compelled to crawl along the floor rather than walk past them in an indecent state of dress. One of these days I’m sure I’ll get tired of the inconvenience and sew the 10 panels needed to cover the remaining windows and regain my dignity, but until then I’ll just keep muttering to myself in shame.