Dressing Table Turn TV Console

This dressing table was a family hand-me-down that I was grateful to receive but couldn't figure out how to use. It didn't fit in my tiny "master" bedroom, and I don't have a real office space... Turns out it was the only thing strong enough to hold up our TV, so a TV console it is. Ay, I wish we had a wall mounted TV...

Make Me Over...Pretty Please

This poor thing has been crying out for a makeover for years. I'm incredibly happy with the results of the paint job I shared with you yesterday. I used Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan, which makes painting a breeze, and enabled me to completed this entire project in one afternoon. If you missed it, read the details here. 

I want to give a special shout out to the lovely ladies of the charming Metheny Weir shop who helped me out when I originally ordered the wrong color. Woops! This Chalk Paint® in old white  is perfect!

The other half of the makeover story...  

I always think of hardware as the icing on the cake, the jewels that complete the outfit, the cherry on top... However the reality is that I usually plan my piece around the hardware. I have kept an eye out for hardware with a sleek streamlined design in a golden hue. Alas, sleek gold I could not find...at least not for less than $18 a piece, and the hardware I drooled over cost upwards of $30 a piece!! Mama Mia! My pocketbook trembles at the very thought. 

However I found these fantastic pulls at Lowes:

• Silver rectangular platform knobs, $3.47 each
• 5" Brainerd vintage nickel bar cabinet pulls, $7.97 each 
• 3 " Brainerd vintage nickel bar cabinet pulls, $4.97 each

Lately I've had quite the spray painting trigger finger, and I thought perhaps I could paint the hardware gold...dare I? I Googled it and lo' and behold a favorite read of mine Little Green Notebook had already ventured on this bold ground! Woop! Per Jenny's instructions I started with Rust-oleum's clean metal primer, then I opted for Rust-oleum bright metallic gold. Finally I finished with Minwax fast drying polyurethane...which I would have never thought of on my own accord. Thank you Jenny!

While my hardware is drying, it's time for a little bit of minor "reconstruction" on this dresser facelift. Here is the plan...

Did you catch all of that? *grin*  Nice and simple...I'm taking the end piece/legs off of the extension part and reattaching them to the base piece. Shortening this piece will make it is less clunky and awkward looking. It really was a simple task and required only a screwdriver and small crowbar.
Next I am attaching the end piece/legs via a wooden strip screwed into both pieces, and some wood glue.

Wood filler took care of the space left by removal. I sanded and painted over the gap.

The Grand Finale

Once the wood filler dried, and my paint job was complete I was left with a piece I could love as the center of my living room. As functional as it is pretty, my new old dresser console has loads of storage as well as desk space! In my book that makes it perfect. I'm so thankful for this hand-me-down...and the sugar that turned lemons into lemonade! *smile*

Linky Love:

Liz Marie Blog
East Coast Creative
Miss Mustard Seed
Bliss Ranch

Chalk Paint® Decorative Paint by Annie Sloan

The harsh winter weather here in Northeast Ohio has put a big damper on my furniture makeover projects... until today! No it hasn't warmed up, as a matter of fact it is 19 degrees outside and there is still snow on the ground. *pout* Seriously, where is the promised spring weather? Thankfully I have discovered Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan!

Being low in VOC's with barely any smell, I can do my painting indoors without waiting for the springtime warm-up. Well hello happiness! Using the recommended Soft Wax finish instead of the typical polyurethane means I don't need the ventilation of the great outdoors. Instead I'm closing off this room and putting plastic down on the floors as if I were painting walls. Finally sweet creativity is mine! Can you tell I am going a little stir crazy from winter? *wry grin*

The Furniture

This dressing table / dresser turned TV console is such an odd and interesting piece. It is certainly not the stylish modern type, or your typical traditional dressing table either. I I would sit and stare at it for hours, wondering what to DO with it. I hate to see it lose it's uniqueness, but find myself dissatisfied it's outdated elements.

I admit I have a fear of painting wood furniture. Gorgeous wood grains should be flaunted not covered up... then again, some pieces are just too much wood, or are simply pretending to be all wood when parts of it are actually a laminate. Such is the case with my dressing table turned TV console. Painting this piece is the perfect solution to cover up some of the mismatched wood grains and updating it. 

The Paint Job
This is my first time using Annie Sloan products and I admit I am excited! Not just because I finally get to paint again, but because I've heard so many good things about these products. Today I am using the Chalk Paint® decorative paint  by Annie Sloan in the color Old White, plus the Clear Soft Wax.  You can find an incredible assortment of colors and everything you need for your project at Annie Sloan Unfolded. 

To begin my project I am testing the paint on a portion of my dresser console. Typically the Chalk Paint® brand does not require any sanding or priming (woohoo, my kind of paint!!), but with such an old furniture piece I wanted to ensure there were no old stains that would seep through the paint. In a case like that I would use a stainblock primer first... thankfully that does not seem to be the case. Nothing is seeping through, so no need for a primer! Even more exciting, it appears that I only require 2 coats for full coverage! Amazing considering this is a dark dresser and a white paint!

See where I threw on a little Paris Grey on the bottom drawer? I am planning to use it on my kitchen table and was excited to see how it looked! Can you say love at first sight?
Typically I would remove the drawers and get to work... but these drawers are particularly pesky to remove so I'm taping off the inside lip and leaving them open while painting. 

Ok, first I have to say it is amazing how quickly I am whipping through this project! This paint dries very quickly. By the time I worked my way from one end of the dresser to the other end, it was ready for its 2nd and final coat! I think it is a combination of quick drying, good coverage, and this lovely round bristled Annie Sloan Brush! 

I often use my small art brushes (pictured) to get in small corners and niches that paint brushes have a hard time adequately reaching. But they had a break today, as the Annie Sloan brush did the trick! The round bristle brush is oddly soft and yet firm enough to reach into this dresser's most pesky corners! It is a nice big brush, so it covers this large piece very quickly. I used mostly horizontal and vertical cross hatched strokes across my piece.

Because the paint dries so quickly, be sure that if you dab to get in corners, you immediately brush over it to smooth it out or it will dry that way. I made that mistake on one corner and had to sand it to get rid of the pock marks it left after sitting for 3 or 4 minutes.

40 minutes and two coats later I am ready to sand this baby! I'm only sanding the edges and any areas where the brush strokes are too accentuated. I want to take just a little off to create a distressed edge look...but only slightly. This paint is so unique from any I've ever worked with... it sands very easily leaving a beautiful and soft finish. I'm glad I put plastic down though, it makes cleaning up a breeze after all the sanding.

Finally I am finishing with two coats of Annie Sloan Clear Wax. There is a dark wax color available, but I wanted to accentuate the white as opposed to the aged traditional look for this particular piece. You can use the brush to apply the wax, or a lint free cloth. I am using a polyester cloth that generates no lint to apply the protective wax. 

And voila! What do you think? 

Today I have learned one important thing about using Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan:  You can actually finish a project before dinner, have plenty of time to clean up, and your husband will walk in and not know the difference. *chuckle* 
Well people, it is official...I am a fan! I'm happy to report that I still have more than half a can leftover and I have a few other projects in mind for it. So take that winter, you can't hold me back anymore! 

To make this piece all that I envisioned, it required new hardware (which is painted!), and some minor construction, so I will be sharing the other details of this project tomorrow. (Click here to read that post)

This is not a paid post, Annie Sloan Unfolded graciously provided materials for review. Everything written in this post expresses my own thoughts and honest opinions.

The Painted Vanity

The vanity in my girls Jack & Jill bathroom could use a little pick-me-up, and after looking into my budget I've decided that a "pick-me-up" is the best its going to get. Yep, I'm pinching my pennies as always...well I've only got nine other spaces I want to makeover! *chuckle*
No worries, I've seen the power of paint, and I have a little leftover paint from the coat closet makeover that wants to be used in a space where daylight can hit it. 

Sad Little Vanity Before
This vanity has been painted before, and no apparent finish added so that makes this a straight forward paint job, without the need to sand or prime. Sadly, they painted over the hinges...which try as I might I could not remove without damaging the vanity. Oh well, painted hinges it is.

My Paint Treasure!
The only real prep work I am doing is filling the holes where the previous handles were. Painting is a breeze, and I'm still loving this color even though I did not choose it. Apparently someone didn't love it, because I found it in the "oops" section at Walmart marked waaaaay down! One man's trash...

To protect my new paint finish from spilled toothpaste, kids dangling feet, and whatever else my little people can throw at it, I'm finishing this baby with several coats of a polycrylic finish. Lets be realistic, I need to be able to wipe this vanity down at least once a week. And while I'm painting, the inside needed some serious freshening up with bright white paint.

The Golden Bells & Whistles
I have always opted for brushed chrome finishes, but this bathroom was already outfitted with gold fixtures...which really lacked luster in this bathroom before. When the faucet broke I thought perhaps this was my opportunity to change out for a little silver. Then again, the shower curtain bar, the toilet paper holder, and the glass shelf are beautiful fixtures...maybe it's time I embrace the golden bells and whistles and work it!

Never mind conventional cabinet pulls, I love the style of these Gatehouse brand pulls from Lowes. It doesn't hurt that they are cheaper than traditional pulls!

To add a little extra something-something I decided to frame out the door edges with these brackets which I hope to repeated either on framed art and/or elsewhere in the bathroom. 

Speaking of golden accessories, I am SO thrilled to have inherited this awesome little piece! I have no idea where the previous owners got it from, but I just love this eclectic and oh-so-helpful hand! 

The Painted Vanity
It may not have been in my budget to replace the vanity or the sink, but that doesn't mean I couldn't have something lovely. What do you think? Is the power of paint enough for now?

Dresser Rehab

A fantastic friend found this dresser on the side of the road and thought of me! Is it strange that I feel very honored and fortunate to have friends who would take the time and effort load a roadside freebie just for me? Oh wait, let me preface that by saying that those particular friends are also DIY'ers with amazing taste and equally amazing homes -- (please don't start dropping roadkill furniture on my front lawn) *worried half-grin*. 

The Before
The before was definitely outdated, but had such nice lines! My friend thought I would be able to freshen it up with a coat of paint and new hardware... boy was she right. However it wasn't me or the friend who gave it to me that finally did the deed, it was yet another DIY junkie friend of mine, on the blog we call her Aunty 'L'. That poor dresser waited 4 years for someone to put it in rehab...what can I say, I just had so many other pieces of furniture that needed intervention first. Needless to say, I was grateful for help!
We opted to remove the upper shelf and just work with the dresser base. As always, I have salvaged what I could for other projects I have in mind, the wood will be put to good use!

Simple Steps & Elbow Grease
The steps sound simple enough, but let me tell you...we were exhausted by days end.
'L' started by giving it a light sanding while I filled the drawer holes with wood filler. I let the filler dry and also gave it a light sanding. 'L' then used a spray paint primer on the entire dresser and we left it to dry overnight. 
The next day 'L' carefully painted it (several times over) using thinned coats of "Bleached Linen" Behr brand paint. Paint thinner and the right brushes work wonders to prevent painters streaks, and a couple coats of wipe-on polyurethane preserves the gorgeous new finish! 
Besides covering the smudges and golden grooves, the paint also brightened up the dresser from the slightly yellowy white it sported before. 

Anthropologie Please!
I have often drooled over many Anthropologie goods. Well, guess what incredible surprise 'L' had for me?!! Yep, Anthro knobs!! The hardware before is certainly princessy enough to please little girls, but a bit too traditionally elegant for my personal taste. I will definitely donate the old knobs to the Habitat for Humanity Resale Store nearby, they will suit someone out there.  
These new pretty knobs have my little girl's heart all a'twitter, and I get something much more to my taste! We call that a win-win. 
I drilled new holes directly between the old ones, used a hack saw to cut these knobs to length, and we watched the knobs transform the dresser into something splendid and new! 

This now practical and pretty dresser adds the perfect touch to my little girls bedroom! Has your interest been piqued? See the whole weekend bedroom makeover process here, and see how to I made the pin & magnetic board to go above the dresser here. I promise I'll share the entire updated bedroom soon, in the meantime you can get a sneak peak over at my house tour page! *wink*