Project: Dresser

The first week after we moved to Indiana, another family was moving out and offered to give us a small dresser for free.  We thought it would be a nice place to put baby clothes, so we accepted the generous offer.  We brought home this beauty in the back of our car:

I wish I had taken a picture of the unidentifiable sticky substance that covered the inside of one of the drawers (we are hoping it was honey).  We decided that it would make a good temporary spot for baby clothes, but then I got this idea to fix it up a bit.  I found this blog that showed how to paint laminate furniture without sanding.  This was absolutely crucial because my project would be taking place in our kitchen.

In the exhausted mental and physical state that I’m in, I only bought the materials we needed for the first step of the project. A brush, roller, pan for the primer, and primer were added to the shopping list.  We used a water-based primer with low odor and waited for a day when there was no rain so we could open up our windows for ventilation.

I started cleaning the drawers and dresser and Andrew jumped into the priming as soon as he had clean surfaces to cover.  We did 3 coats of primer to really cover the dark ‘wood’.

The directions on the can said to let the primer cure for seven days, which provided a much needed break for this exhausted lady!  We just left the drawers and dresser where they were in our kitchen and lived around them.
Andrew and I made a trip to Lowes to buy paint before the next weekend so we would be prepared.  We had no idea what color we really wanted to paint the dresser, but we found a light green (neon mint) and darker green (jaded lime) at the store that we figured would look nice.  With the sample-size containers of Valspar paint (also super low odor), we spent less than $5 on high quality paint.

When we were in woodshop class almost 2 years ago I discovered how tedious making drawers can be (especially on my first one).  I discovered during this project how tedious painting drawers can be when it involves painters tape and two colors.  Painting the two colors with a couple of coats each took another few days, plus another week of drying time.

Once the paint was dry we had to assemble it to see how it was looking.  We are rather pleased with the results! The handles are hideous and we have yet to figure out if we want to try and paint the originals to save money or just buy new ones.  Jury is still out.
The final step was to coat the entire dresser and drawers in 2 coats of finish.  Again, we chose the water-based, low odor option of Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish.  I finished that yesterday, and now they are again sitting spread out on our kitchen floor for another week while they completely dry and air-out.

We are both getting really excited to have this project finished, but I am glad we did it!  The dresser looks WAY better with a few coats of paint.  Mostly I just get really excited about welcoming our little girl into our home in about two months every time I look at it!