Eve was my first BIG furniture make-over (hence the name “Eve”…get it?). I had done a couple of small projects that just required a little paint or stain and loved transforming pieces to fit our style and home and was itching to do more. Also, we were in need of a dresser. My husband and I are in our 40’s and have never had proper bedroom furniture. It’s just never been a priority. But I decided it was time and that I wanted to refinish a piece and make it our own.
The first step is stalking the swap pages and facebook marketplace. I quickly learned that cheap and free things go FAST and it is really hard to snag them unless you are checking all day. I had almost given up hope and then…..HAPPY ACCIDENT! I was out checking out a new photography location for an upcoming shoot. I noticed this location had nice bike trails and there were a lot of people riding. Hmmmm, my kids had been pestering me to get a bike so we could ride together. Before I knew it I was scrolling through Facebook Marketplace in search of a bike. That’s when I saw this beautiful piece of furniture pop up for FREE! Now I should stop right here for a minute and mention that although I’ve never been diagnosed, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a pretty good chance my son acquired his ADHD from me. I’m not sure it’s normal for most people to go check out a park, decide they need a bike and come home with a dresser but it’s really just another day for me. Anyway, I messaged them FAST because I knew it would be gone soon and hurried to grab it up and then returned home to a husband that was probably fairly surprised that I went to a park and came home with a dresser (he’s not surprised anymore when this happens).
So technically, Eve is a buffet, but we needed a dresser more than a buffet so that’s what we are calling her now. The piece was overall in pretty good shape but in order to get the end result I wanted I was going to have to do a lot of things I had never done before which was a little scary. Since this was the first time I was doing these things I did have to purchase some products, but hey…the furniture was free and I could use these things on future projects, so totally worth it!
The first step was sanding. A lot of sanding. I used hand sanders because I didn’t want to overdo it on this piece and because it didn’t need heavy sanding in most areas. It did have some scratches and someone’s name scratched into the top (why???) so I was able to work a little extra in those places. It also had some small but fairly deep gashes in the top so I filled those with a stainable wood filler. I knew I wanted the body painted blue and the top a dark walnut so after googling some options I chose Rust-oleum’s Coastal Blue Chalk Paint and Verathane Dark Walnut stain. The brass handles were very tarnished and I really wanted them to pop so thanks to the recommendation of a friend I purchased a bottle of Brasso to clean them up and make them POP against the blue. Brasso works great but does require a lot of elbow grease and patience (and is messy) so be prepared for that.
Once the paint and stain was finished I applied a good 2 or 3 coats of polyurethane on top letting it dry between each coat. The color of the wood turned out beautiful!
To finish it add some shine to the finish and details, I used a furniture wax by Behr (lots more elbow grease). We absolutely love this piece and I LOVE finally having a proper dresser! I instantly knew I needed a gold framed mirror to hang above her so back to Facebook Marketplace I went and found exactly what I wanted! So happy with the finished look!
I chose this particular one by process of “eenie meenie” (because lets face it, I don’t really know what I’m doing at this point). Wow! I got lucky though. Not only did this stuff clean the pieces I bought great, but I was so happy with it I then went and used it on my dining table and it really took care of the grit, grime and grease from my darling little angels. Not only that but it smells delicious…kind of like Ameretto! But enough about that. Next I started sanding. I considered using some type of electric sander (palm, belt, rotary?) but the cheap and inexperienced side of me wasn’t sure if we already had one at home when I was at Home Depot gathering supplies, ….or which would work best, ….or if I would totally screw up the furniture with one of these so the side of me that likes to pretend I know what I’m doing decided hand sanding would be best to be able to go with the grain of the herringbone pattern more easily so I went this route:
So I should probably now mention that it was in the upper 90’s on the day I chose to take on this project and around 185% humidity and I’m in the garage with no breeze so the next product I turned to was this one:
Ahhh, that’s better. Ok, next was the stain. I used Varathane woodstain in Dark Walnut. Remember, I don’t really know what I’m doing so my decision to use this was because I planned on buying Minwax brand because that seems to be all the rage in the “furniture makeover” scene, but they were out of Dark Walnut which I specifially wanted because we are getting barn doors in the same space that will be that color. So I moved on to the first brand I found in that color and the can promised all kinds of amazing things like “satisfaction guaranteed”, Dries 3X faster, Acheive color in ONE coat! They seemed pretty excited about their product so worked for me. I used a sponge brush and applied the stain and waited about 3 or 4 minutes before wiping it off with one of my son’s old t shirts.
Next was the paint. I wanted a contrast between the wood top (which was now a lovely dark walnut…in ONE coat) and the bottom to seperate and give the piece a more updated look. I literally just grabbed a sample I liked and handed it over to the friendly Home Depot Paint Mixer Person along with a quart of Behr Premium Plus with Primer in Interior Eggshell. I initially also had Primer in my cart but when I came across this 2 in 1 option, I figured why not eliminate the extra step. So I wandered around while I waited for my paint to get mixed and then glanced at the sample again and realized the color I chose was called “Berry Brown”. Interesting because I thought I chose grey. Now I was a little worried but decided that since our couch was grey but there were lots of browns incorporated in the woods and carpet in our basement, maybe it would be ok. So I was kind of holding my breath as I started painting the bottoms of the tables, but was pretty pleased with the greyish/brownish color that it turned out to be.
Next I needed something to protect them from the drinks and who knows what else the rugrats and hubby would set on them so I after some googling I chose this spray on polycrylic.
Since I knew by the time I got to this step my project would be cosmetically complete and I didn’t want to take a chance of screwing it up on the last step, spraying seemed like the simplest and easiest route. Not really. After the stain and paint dried, I followed the directions which said to shake it vigorously for 2-3 minutes and then again after every minute of use (that’s a lot of shaking folks) but instead of a constant mist I was getting a lot of bubbly splatters. I kept having to lightly dab them off of the furniture so they didn’t leave uneven circles all over the tables. I used 4 coats (waiting for each coat to dry for 30 minutes in between). The directions also said to sand with a fine sandpaper in between coats, but the thought of sanding my now finished product that looked exactly how I wanted it to, gave me anxiety so I said “no thank you” and broke that rule. Maybe that was to get rid of the stupid bubbles that were splattering out of the can? Anyway, the finish didn’t really look or feel drastically different after 4 coats, but it seems to have worked as my family has tested it out already as only they can. Here is the end result with my $3 garage sale lamp and $1 set of garage sale coasters sitting atop one of my $7.50 (each) tables. 🙂
Now I’m itching to tackle another project!