DIY Dresser Makeover

Looking at this photo your probably thinking "Why would you make over such a gorgeous dresser Kendra?".  Okay, maybe not.  I will be the first to admit that this dresser isn't much to look at.  It was however, free!  You read me right, FREE!  I came across this gem in the fall on a local buy & sell Facebook page.  I had been looking for a dresser for Roman as he is quickly growing out of the current system I have set up for him.  When this diamond in the rough came up I jumped on it in a hot minute.  John thought it was pretty ugly when he went to pick it up but he knew I could turn it into something pretty and useful.

The first thing to keep in mind when attempting a project like this is to pick a dresser that works.  I personally have no experience fixing the actual working parts of a dresser so I made sure to pick one that was just ugly.  Ugly can always be fixed!  The selling feature for me was the draw pulls.  They were originally gold with a flower pattern painted on them.  Not the most appealing design but the shape of them was great.  Like I said, ugly can be fixed.  Let the project begin!

I know your probably jealous of my amazing work table.  You too can build your very own!  I took my two planters and laid an IKEA table top on top of them.  This is the table top that eventually made it's way to my craft room in a recent Follow Us Friday and is now part of my craft table.

 

I started by removing all the hardware from the dresser.  I was a little worried the draw pulls were going to be glued down.  Luckily they weren't, so after removing the screws they fell right off.  There was only one knob in the top drawer so that saved me some time.  To be truthful all I had to do was touch it and it basically fell off.  To give the pulls a new life I decided to spray paint them.  I used a silver Rust-Oleum paint with a metallic finish.  I built a make shift spray tent out of a diaper box.  This keeps the pain from drifting all over the garage and attaching to other objects.  I like to do multiple thin coats so that I don't have bubbles form in the paint.  Always remember to spray paint in a well ventilated area!

Once the pulls were painted I moved on to sanding the dresser.  I started with the drawers and used and fine grit sandpaper to scuff up the original paint.  This will allow the paint to stick to the dresser without having to prime.  I honestly have no idea who grit the sandpaper was, I just came across a few random sheets in the garage so that's what I used.  I LOVE Valspar paint for Lowes!  We used it in our Bathroom Makeover as well as the rest of our house.  The best part of this paint is it only needs one coat!  I have yet to find a color that needs more than one color, which makes painting a breeze.  I decided to use white for 2 reasons.  1. I already had a can of it on hand, and 2. white furniture will go with any theme room Roman has for the next several years.  This paint isn't tinted at all so it is the white color out of the can.

I started using a brush to paint with but I didn't like the streaks I was getting, so I decided to switch to a roller.  I'm not nearly as good with a roller as I am a brush (I usually do the cutting when we paint while John rolls) so I ended up doing a couple coats to cover up my mistakes.  If your more skilled with a roller than I you can probably get away with one coat.

All that is left to do is reattached the pulls and add some knobs.  The knobs I picked up from Lowes on a previous shopping trip and had planned to use them on another project but I decided to snag them for this one.  Older dressers are made of thinner wood so the knobs sag a big because the screws are too long.  On my next trip to the hardware store I'll pick up some shorter ones, but for now they will work.

 

I'm extremely happy with how this dresser turned out!  You would never guess by looking at it now how ugly it was to start with!  This entire makeover cost around $50, most of which is the cost of the knobs, since I already had the paints on hand.  This dresser should be able to grow with Roman for a few years which gives me a great bang for my buck!