Retro Dresser Turned TV Console

Today is the last day of school!!!  No more getting up early, scrambling to get clothes washed the night before and nagging about homework and grades.

The kiddo is not one of those kids who gets bored after a week of summer and is ready for school again. She soaks in every last minute of it. She’s ready to have friends over, hang out at the pool and watch movies with me until late at night.

And I am excited to have someone help me around here with my furniture projects. The kid is turning out to be a not-half-bad painter.

Speaking of the unnamed child, we are going to be the worst parents on the planet (according to her) because we are making her get a job this summer. Last summer she did some babysitting, but it was pretty infrequent — and she isn’t very maternal (which is a little concerning). So she has started filling out applications. So far they have all been to food establishments: bakeries, yogurt shops, or smoothie shops. I am hoping that she realizes you cannot just sit around eating during your shift.

One thing I have been excited about lately is yard sale season. We have city wide yard sales around my neck of the woods.  A city wide yard sale is when an entire town will all open up their garages at the same time for hundreds of yard sales, all on the same weekend. I love being able to just drive up and down the streets, going from sale to sale and not have to hunt down locations like I normally do. Having so many sales at once means you have to be quick. You have to do a lot of scanning, and determine which has potential and which doesn’t.

I love the thrill of the hunt!

Over the years, I’ve been able to decorate my house with an eclectic mix of modern and vintage items. I think it makes it more interesting than having home where everything looks like you grabbed it out of a showroom. I like a house that tells a story.

Speaking of a story, I found this giant dresser from one of my readers who was going to throw it out and asked if I wanted it.  This guy was a retro beast (the dresser, not the reader). Soooo HEEEAAAAVVVVY!

It had great potential though! All the drawers slid smoothly, and the top was in good shape.

It had about a hundred layers of dirt, and just cleaning the grime off it it took almost 2 hours … and a million nasty Q-tips.  Also, the top, front edge had the veneer pretty beaten up, so instead of trying to patch an edge where the top and front veneer meet, we took out the router and cut a nice bevel around the front and side edges.

Once it was clean, I used my Homeright Power-Flo and spayed the entire piece with Plaster Paint in Sweet Cream. I wanted to use a sprayer on this piece since there was so much carving on the front of the drawers.

Once the base was on, I then hand-painted the front of the drawers, which took FOR-EV-ER, and then rolled on the top of the dresser with Plaster Paint Grey Silk with just a hint of their Silver Bling mixed in.

I spray painted the original handles with Rustoleum’s Soft Iron.

I then distressed the entire piece — which again took ages to do.

And then I coated the whole piece in Plaster Paint’s Paste Wax, and then I buffed the whole thing smooth.

I am really, really happy with how it turned out. I thought it would make either a great dresser or a pretty TV console.

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