Refurbishing adventure number 2! Little white dresser.

A few months ago I was given an old dresser by my coworker. It was an honour to take it, in sad circumstances, and get to refinish something with a long history. The back panel of the dresser says "Dec 72" and the wear and tear showed its age! The first challenge, once we got it home, was realizing that it was suuuper cheap. No solid wood here! It had a thin cheap venir that was bubbling in places, and handles that weren't solid metal and were bent and dented. But I wasn't ready to give up. It still had good bones! After realizing that sanding wasn't going to be a good idea, since we'd be down to the particle board in seconds, I decided that our only option was to paint it. We hit up home depot and picked up an interior oil based "paint and primer in one" for $25 bucks, along with a little foam roller that we can use for future projects.

Then, it was a simple matter of painting. I made sure to wipe it down first, since I did some sanding on the top to try and get rid of the bubbling (didn't really work). It took about 4 coats, and I just kept going until It was really solidly covered. The nice thing about using the oil based paint was it really built up the surface of the dresser, and I think it will extend its lifetime. (SO much easier than the last dresser project: sanding the entire thing and then staining...yikes!)

Since I'd decided at the beginning that this dresser was NOT going to be a money pit, we decided to check out the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store for handles. We had looked at Home Depot and decided that $6 bucks a handle was just more than we wanted to spend. Lucky for us, they had some awesome options at exactly the right size! I decided on these brushed chrome and light wood handles that have an almost beachy feel. We discussed painting or staining the wood, but decided the light look was more versatile and softer. Plus, the only cost $2 bucks each.

The last piece of the puzzle was legs for the dresser! It used to have some, but they had been discarded somewhere along the way. If we left it straight on the floor, we wouldn't be able to open the bottom drawer. This is where family connections prove their value again: I jokingly said "hey Dad! got any dresser legs sitting around in the garage?" and he said "yeah, why?" Turns out, they were perfect. They're cute and chunky and stained the same as the handles! Dwayne had to trim them down and then we screwed them on.

I think it looks awesome. And the best part? Dwayne filled it with his clothes, and now I get the whole closet shelf. WIN!!

So here's the final product! (notice Basil the cat got herself in there again?)