Sunday, August 2, 2009

Pink Dresser

Since deciding to move to West Virginia, I realized that the only furniture I actually own is a bookcase. Everything else is just whatever is at my parents house. I don't have enough money (or a job to bring more money in) to go and buy all new furniture so I've been trying to make due with what I have. I broke down and bought a full sized bed. It has a simple design and it was pretty cheap but will work good in the future as a guest bed or child's bed so it was a good investment. Also, the inexpensiveness helps me not be so worried about what happens to it.

Next I needed a dresser. This is what I had to work with:


Yeah. This is part of the bedroom set my mother had as a little girl. When she got it the set was white with gold accents (French Provincial style I'm told) and it includes this small three drawer dresser, a seven drawer dresser, a vanity with a bench, a hutch that goes on top of the small dresser and a four poster bed. My mom used this furniture until she was married then took it with her and my parents used it as newlyweds. I think my sister used it at some point and it was painted yellow. Then when it was my turn to inherit the furniture everything was painted pink. All that paint one on top of the other. The furniture has held up pretty well. I think my parents got rid of the bed since two of the posters were sawed off anyway (I believe my brothers were jumping on it and broke the canopy so the end posters were shortened), but we still have all of the rest of the furniture.

I decided (because I'm crazy) to refinish the tall 7 drawer dresser. This means scraping off all those layers of paint, sanding the entire dresser and painting it. The handles will stay the same since they are unique and in very good shape. The drawers all work beautifully so function isn't a problem either.

I'll try to add photos as I finish the project, but here are a few to begin with:

The drawers prior to scraping paint off for the third (and last) time. Two coats of paint remover and three scraping sessions and I had as much paint off as was possible.

This is a crappy picture, but that's a drawer post sanding. You can kind of see the grain of the wood a little better.

So I've got all the drawers scraped and half of them sanded. I still need to get the paint off of the dresser and sand it as well. I'm thinking about going with a dark brown/black color paint...I'm not a fan of white furniture and I want something that will still be neutral and somewhat timeless (so no one has to go through all of this ever again haha).

Stay tuned...

3 comments:

kacy faulconer said...

I really wish I could do stuff, like you. I can't.

Lindsey said...

Don't worry Kacy, I am no where near finishing this dresser.

Lindsay said...

i love doing these kind of projects.. they are so fun... annoying and tiring.. but fun. :) and you feel so proud when you finish and it looks awesome! (singing the word awesome).