As you all know, I am over-the-moon happy with the way the dresser turned out. Judging by all the Facebook likes and comments, you all are happy with it too!
So, initially I hated dressers. I felt like they were wasted space. At my first apartment, I had a walk through closet. I hung everything and had a small little drawer on a shelf to hold the -ahem- things that shouldn't be hung. While I've been staying with my parents during this transitional time between apartments, I have been using a dresser in the guest room (Yes, I'm that old. It's no longer my room. My sister took my room. I am now in the guest room.). While planning out how my apartment will be organized, I've come to the realization that I struck gold with the first apartment's closet, and I will probably never have that amazing of a closet again (until I marry a wonderful carpenter who will build me a fabulous closet, shoe rack...and all of my other "Dream Home" pins on Pinterest). So, I caved and asked my mom if I could have one of her dressers. (For those who do not know my family, my mom and my aunt both like collecting furniture that they don't necessarily need. Good for me as I am looking for things to furnish my apartment, bad for my step dad who has to find a place for everything). The dresser that my mom gave me was brown with this glossy mess all over it and I was NOT impressed. She said it was mine to do whatever I wanted with, so I took a trip to Lowes and picked out some funky colors and planned out my Memorial Day DIY project!
What I used:
-Old Dresser
-Six Sheets of Sandpaper
-Glossy Turquoise Paint
-Flat Turquoise Paint
-Flat Grey Paint
-Screwdriver (to remove and replace handles)
-Stencil for Pattern
-Paint Brushes
I used the stencil that was used in this AWESOME tutorial:
For the paint, I splurged and got a gallon of the flat turquoise paint because I knew that I would be painting a lot of things that color (I am obsessed). I purchased the smaller jugs of the glossy turquoise and the grey because I knew I would be using less of that... And holy cow! Paint ain't cheap!
My colors:
.jpg)
Sorry it's upside down. Tried to turn it around and save it a different way, but it wasn't agreeing with me.
Here it is before I started painting. It wasn't in bad shape or anything. I just didn't like the color.
This was before I started sanding it. I sanded it in order to get it to be a little rough-feeling so that the paint would stick. My mom said that if I didn't sand it, that the paint would not dry properly. So, I sanded it for like, an hour. Needless to say I was pretty sore the next day.
I painted it the fabulous flat turquoise.
**Important: I painted the flat on top and then went over it with the glossy paint. Flat paint gets dirty and dinged-up pretty easy, so since this was the top of the dresser, I decided to go over it with glossy paint. This was suggested by my genius aunt.**
I saw on Pinterest where some people are painting the sides of the drawers so there's a pop of color separate from the actual dresser. I liked this, but I didn't want it to take away from the design that I was putting on the dresser. So, I went with grey.
Then I got started on the stencil. This took FOREVER. But, what else did I have to do? Homework? Psh! Whatevs!
I've done this kind of stencil work on a coffee table for my first apartment, and I remember it being so difficult to make sure every line looked the same so it didn't look uneven. One great thing about doing a stencil in the same color is that it doesn't have to be perfect! If I smudged a pencil line, BOOM, I just painted over it. Something that I had to remind myself, though, was to not get too crazy with covering my mistakes. If your project has a glossy smudge completely separate from the pattern, it will no longer look like you meant to do that pattern. it'll just look like you couldn't decide what you wanted to do. So, the moral of the story is that there isn't a lot of pressure to make the pattern PERFECT, but be smart with which paint you're using. If there's a rediculous line where you got mixed up and drew the pattern in the wrong spot, break out the flat paint again and go over it.
The final product:
For the handles I took the old ones and spray painted them with the Stainless Steel paint I bought for another project...
The other project I did this week was metallic cardboard letters. I wanted "WASH" in my future bathroom and "EAT" in my future kitchen. Some people have said that this is weird, but I like it... And it's my apartment!
The Dilemma: I live about 30 minutes from Hobby Lobby, Joann's, and Michael's. I prefer Hobby Lobby because they are a little cheaper and usually helpful. Well, the only problem was Hobby Lobby was 30 minutes away in it's own little spot, and Joann's and Michael's was 30 minutes in the opposite direction. I called Hobby Lobby to see if they had the cardboard letters, and she said they only had card stock. She had no idea what I was talking about, so I decided to just drive there to see what they had. Can I just say that they have EVERYTHING? Wooden letters, cardboard letters, metal letters. What the heck was wrong with that lady?
These weren't as big as I was expecting to get, but once I saw the prices I decide they would do. They were 2.99 a piece and then the paint was 7.99. I used Krylon Stainless Steel Paint.
Before:
After:
The lighting isn't too hot in these pictures, but they turned out great!!
:)
No comments:
Post a Comment