Huge undertaking

This has been my most challenging project to date.

I bought this dresser off craigslist. We drove a long way to see it (my husband was super excited about that), and it was a definite fixer upper. It was totally dated and smelled really bad.

I thought it had some serious potential though. My husband did not. I think his exact words were “this is crap, nothing can be done with this, just walk away”. He has no vision.

So we piled it in the car along with the matching headboard, and we were on our smelly way home.

Cleaning this was disgusting. All of the grooves in the carving required hours of work and many nasty q-tips.

Once clean I painted with chalk paint. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It soaked up the paint like nothing I had ever seen. Five coats later it was finished.

I then started the glazing process. It took forever. Getting the right amount into the carving without getting too much was sooo hard. If too much got in I had to go in with a toothpick wrapped in cloth to get it out.

I then glazed the top. I looked down and a huge patch of glaze soaked in way too much. So here I was with this dark spot right on the top of this dresser I painted 5 times! Determined to make this work, I then started dry brushing on the stain and it started evening out. Thank heavens!

After several coats of wax later, it was finally finished. The pictures don’t do it justice.  It turned out to be my favorite piece.

I really had to think hard about whether I wanted to sell it or not. Monica, the nice lady who bought my blue desk, bought it to hang her tv above.

Linked to: