Dresser Redo | {Megan}

One thing that I love to do is upcycle or re-do furniture and home accessories. I guess you could say it runs in the family as my mother owns her own business, Barnyard Boutique, where she does just that and more. Ever since she started her upcycling/vintage and antique business, I have always enjoyed helping her and learning her many techniques. Once I found out that I would be moving to a new state, I had a rush of ideas for my future apartment. My imagination was running wild. I started to have ideas for some of my existing pieces of furniture, but I also felt an urge to find some new pieces that I could put my own creative spin on. I began looking at the local swap pages on Facebook, thrift stores, and of course, Goodwill.

The first piece that I decided to work on was a long horizontal dresser that Zeke had when he lived with his parents. We moved this piece into our first apartment together a year and a half ago. I decided I wanted to paint it white. Because we were already moved into our apartment and in desperate need of a TV stand, I rushed the whole project. It didn't turn out that great, but we lived with it. Just a few months ago, I decided that I wanted to re-do the dresser again but this time put 100% into it.

Here's the after!:



Here's a list of all the supplies that were used to create this beautiful piece:



• Deglosser
• Scouring pads
• Valspar Silver Sonic
• Paint brush
• Minwax Polycrylic
• Stripper
• Gloves
• Mask
• Mineral Spirits
• Aluminum foil
• Orbital Sander
• 220 grit sand paper
• General Finish's Antique Walnut Gel Stain
• Rags (not pictured)
• Three 1x4's (not pictured)
• Nail gun (not pictured)
• Steel wool (not pictured)



Here is how I did it:

1. The first step is always to prep the furniture. Because the white paint wasn't slick, there was no need to sand the body of the dresser. Instead, I took some deglosser and rubbed it all over the dresser with a green scrub pad.

2. The next step was simply painting. I went with a very light gray. I prefer brushes with a short handle because they are easier to grip. I ended up only having to do two coats of paint because of it being painted previously. I let the paint dry a day in between each coat.

3. The last step for the body of the dresser was to seal it with polycrylic using a different paint brush.



4. I decided I wanted to stain the drawer fronts and the shelf of the dresser. This process took a little bit more effort. Because the drawers were already painted, I had to use stripper on them. First I just brushed on a generous amount and let it set for a couple hours. One trick is to cover the area that's covered in the stripper with aluminum foil. This helps the stripper to better penetrate the paint layer. Make sure to wear gloves and a mask when using stripper because it will burn! After a couple of hours, I removed the stripper with some steel wool dipped in mineral spirits. While the stripper took off some of the paint, it didn’t take all of it off. Once the drawer fronts were dry, I used an orbital sander with 220 grit sand paper and removed the rest.

5. Once the paint was removed, I simply put the stain on the drawers with a rag and then wiped it back off with a different rag.

6. The next step was to build the shelf. This required three 1x4's. With the help of my mom, we measured the dresser and cut the boards down to the correct size. Then we stained each individual board. Once they were dry we fit them into place and secured them to the dresser with a nail gun.

7. The last step was to put on some hardware. I ended up using the original handles and I love the way it turned out!



I'd love to hear what you guys think of my project!