[completed] bedroom dresser

before!

Today I finally finally put the finishing touches on my WIP bedroom dresser, which has been a work-in-progress since March. I actually finished painting quite awhile, and even sealed the dresser pretty promptly, but then with school and practicum and weather and waiting for cool Ikea knobs to arrive, I never got around to re-assembling the dresser.

after!

You might notice that those awesome Ikea knobs are not present. I ultimately decided against them for two reasons: 1) the red was too dark to go with the paint colors and the clear didn't stand up to the white, and 2) the knobs were too small to go with the style of the dresser. So I went to Lowe's and bought some inexpensive silver concave knobs instead. I screwed them on, screwed the drawers to the drawer slides, screwed the dresser feet on, and voila! A completed bedroom dresser for the new house. For now it will continue to live in the messy garage, but soon (10 days!) it will be relocated.

In that "after" picture, you might notice the tips of blue drawers from my other WIP dresser project. That set I am abandoning - I made a deal with dear Adam that I would be done with them before we moved, and that has not happened (due to weather, laziness, working, etc). So I am reselling them to some other poor soul, and they will hopefully be gone by tomorrow. That will free up room in my garage for packed boxes!

Yay!

[wip] blue dressers

covered in citristrip

Today it was finally nice and warm enough to start stripping my blue dressers. I am using citristrip to take off the (at least) five layers of paint. I started "painting" the dressers with the citristrip around noon, and it still isn't really ready to come off. According to this tutorial, I need to see it bubble. So I am impatiently waiting. I can't wait to get this hideous paint off!

[wip] blue nightstand and dresser set

clean(er) and empty nightstand and dresser

Today I tackled Step One for my new nightstand and dresser set: cleaning!

I used a diluted amount of TSP (1/8 cup in 2 gallons of warm water, as the box recommended) and cleaned the outside of the dresser bodies and the outside and inside of each drawer with a sponge. Then I wiped it all down again with clean, warm water to remove the TSP. The dressers originally smelled pretty smoky, but using the TSP seems to have removed a lot of the cigarette smoke smell. Which is excellent.

Next step: stripping the at least five layers of paint (seriously). Then I plan to reclean all the interior surfaces with Murphey Oil Soap (which has a nice clean smell to it), and prime and paint and all that fun stuff. One step at a time!

clean(er) drawers drying in the sun

[wip] yet another dresser project

nightstand

Yesterday, I picked up a dresser and matching nightstand for $50 (together!). I am going to strip and repaint the set as soon as I'm done with my bedroom dresser, which should be very soon. This set will not be for me - I am going to do all the work to restore them and then (hopefully) sell them. I know the dressers don't look like much now, but they have great lines and should be fabulous once refinished!

I can't wait to start this next project!

[wip] dresser ready to seal

painted dresser

I am done painting my dresser and drawers! In the end I needed three coats of the Sonora Rose color on the body of the dresser, and two coats of the Soft Silk on the drawers. I am now waiting impatiently for the paint to cure so that I can apply a clear polycrylic top coat and then I will be done!

My mother kindly bought me some red Ikea drawer knobs (she also got the clear version, just in case the red doesn't look good). I can't wait to receive the knobs in the mail and get to finish this dresser!

[wip] painting the bedroom dresser

wip in the garage

So far I have done two coats on my bedroom dresser! I settled on using the Sonora Rose and Soft Silk paint colors for the body of the dresser and the drawers. The Sonora Rose color isn't quite accurate in this photo - it's a softer, more dusky rose color. The Soft Silk on the dresser drawers is coming out very white - we'll see if it looks good with the dresser body.

That purple shelving? That's a secret for another post!

[wip] more paint colors for dresser

Now instead of mixing the Valspar Soft Silk color with the Summer Night color, I'm thinking of punching it up a bit and using Sonora Rose. It's from the same collection, so I think the colors will coordinate nicely, and I love the dusky pink color of Sonora Rose.

It has been too cold the last few days to paint, but it's supposed to warm up this weekend. Hopefully I'll make a decision soon so I can paint on Saturday or Sunday!

[wip] bedroom dresser

I am thinking about using these two colors for my new WIP dresser. The colors are Soft Silk and Summer Night by Valspar, and I found them in a new spring collection set of paint chips. Adam vetoed the idea of a wildly colorful dresser (I was thinking a dark pinkish red originally), so now I'm looking at some more subtle colors. I like the idea of a two-tone dresser (sort of like this one), but I can't decide if I'd like the darker color to be the body of the dresser or the drawers and feet.
Any input?

[wip] new dresser project!

all sanded, wiped down and ready to go

I'm at it again - starting a nice new long-term furniture project! The weather finally warmed up enough to make this possible.  I belong to a few yardsale groups on Facebook, and when this six drawer wood dresser popped up for $70 recently, I immediately posted for it! I was the first of many, so I got the dresser! It barely barely fit in my awesome little car. It was a tight squeeze for sure, but I managed to get it home a few days ago.

I haven't yet decided what color(s) this dresser will end up being painted. For now I just plan to prime it and let it harden for a few days while I contemplate color schemes.

so many drawers!

Fabric Organization

The beautiful dresser in my sewing room has been holding all most of my fabrics since it was completed. After finding it increasingly difficult to stuff fabrics into the drawers and even more difficult to find what I'm looking for, I decided it was time to sort, fold, and reorganize. I was inspired by several great fabric stash photos and organizations tips on the good old internet. 

So today I cleaned up my sewing room (because organizing makes a mess all on it's own!), put on some Christmas music, sat down in the sun, and started.

I decided to get rid of all this:

unwanted fabrics

Sorted by color what I wanted to keep:

wanted fabric

 Dealt with an inquisitive cat:

Sassy is "helping"

 And ended up with this:

rainbow of fabric!

I followed (very roughly) the folding direction from In Color Order. Obviously I did not do a perfect job, but I was going for completion rather than perfectionism. Which is good for me, I think. Anyway, I now have five more or less organized drawers of fabric - the two pictured above, which contain all my cottons sorted by color, one small drawer holding all my fat quarters, one drawer containing all my flannels, and one drawer containing the miscellaneous other fabrics (cotton duck, mostly). 

You might notice that my color-sorted drawers seem to have an overabundance of certain colors - greens, blues and my "rainbow" prints. There is also lots of black and white prints, but one can never have too much black or white. I am confused as to how I ended up with so much green, since I do not particularly care for green. And there were NO orange fabrics! Isn't that a shame? That's my favorite color! Oh well. I am promising myself (again) not to buy fabric until I use up more of my stash. I've done pretty well using only my stash for Christmas gifts. More on those later...

I already have a buyer lined up for the unwanted pile. I'm selling it for ridiculously cheap, but I just want it all gone. After all, what is the point of holding on to fabric that I am never going to use?

It felt great to organize today, and now I have a far better idea of what exactly I have, and a method to find what I need (or don't need), and the drawers even close. What more could I ask for?

[completed] color wheel dresser

ta-da!

Today, I finally finished my dresser! I just put the hardware on, and now it's done! At last!

I haven't been working on it much lately - I finished all the painting awhile ago. On Sunday, Adam and I and my new friend moved the dresser into the sewing room. It was Adam's idea to move it, because he wanted a surface to puzzle on (you can just barely see the puzzle mat along the top of the dresser - the dresser top isn't quite wide enough, so we are using my cutting mat to do the puzzle on).

Yesterday, I finished spray-painting the original hardware a glossy white, and this morning, I put all the hardware on. I am so glad that my mother suggested that I spray-paint the hardware white - I was originally planning on silver, but the white looks even better. It matches the body of the dresser, and looks so fresh and fun. I was going to use new hardware, but this looks awesome, and was so much cheaper!

As you can see, the dresser is painted with the primary, secondary and tertiary colors. If you go up the dresser, the primary colors mix to make the secondary colors, and then mix again with the secondary colors to create the tertiary colors. So the yellow and red make orange, and then yellow plus orange make yellow-orange at the top. Clever, right? All credit for this idea goes to Adam. We are going to use the dresser to teach our future children the colors. In the meantime, it looks awesome and fun. I love colorful things!

As previously mentioned, the top of the dresser is painted with chalkboard paint. We've tested it, and it works great. Took a lot of coats, but so worth it! (I have a lot of the chalkboard paint, and I'm on the lookout for more things to paint with it)

There are a few minor touch-ups that I need to do still, but overall, the dresser is finished, and I love it! Now I just need the contact paper to come in so I can line the dresser drawers and actually start using it...

[wip] dresser colors

it's getting there!

Here is (another) update of my dresser. Now you can begin to get a sense of how it is going to look finished! I'm still working on the six colors for the top drawers (but I only have two left to do!), and I have yet to paint the dresser body the glossy white. But the primer is close enough in color to get a sense of the final look. The chalkboard top is done, and Adam tested it last night. It works great!

You can definitely see the corners/edges that I didn't repair, but it doesn't bother me. This dresser will get knocked around plenty in the future, and I kind of like the imperfect look. It's supposed to be fun and functional, not sophisticated and perfect.

I am so excited! Now if only it would cool off so I could paint more...

[wip] dresser color scheme

so colorful

Here is the color scheme for the dresser! Did you expect that many colors? The color scheme was all Adam's idea, but I am doing all the actual work.

The bottom row of two drawers will be divided into the three primary colors (red, blue, yellow).

The second row of three drawers will be divided into the three secondary colors (orange, purple, green).

The top row of three drawers will be divided into the six tertiary colors (red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange).

So far I have painted four coats of yellow and red, three coats of orange, and two coats of yellow-orange. Oh, and two coats of chalkboard paint on the top.

I have a lot left to do, but it's beginning to become a reality!

[wip] dresser progress

dresser madness!

I spent a good chuck of last night (and a little today) doing out the organization, math and measurements of my super-colorful dresser. Doesn't it look crazy? Don't worry, there is a method to my madness!

blackboard top and colors!

Last night and this morning, I reprimed the top of the dresser with enamel undercoater. Today, after the enamel undercoat dried, I painted the top with my new shiny blackboard paint. It doesn't look spectacular now, but after a few more coats, I think it will be awesome.

clipboard of important info!

Today I also painted two of the drawers (or rather, two sections of two drawers) red and yellow. The drawers will also need many more coats. That will take time, of course, but from everything I've read, many thin coats is superior to a few thick coats. And I've got nothing but time!

[wip] dresser priming

so exciting

Today I stopped at Lowe's on the way home from running an errand, and picked up an essential piece of my dresser plans: chalkboard paint. The top of the dresser is going to be a chalkboard! Isn't that exciting? I love chalkboards.

There is one catch with the chalkboard paint - it needs to have a latex primer or enamel undercoat underneath it - so my lovely fresh oil-based primer isn't going to work. Luckily, I have a can of enamel undercoat sitting (literally) below the dresser.

Looks like I'll be doing some more priming in a few hours!

wip: dresser primed!

after the first coat of primer

 Last night, when the garage finally cooled off after a hot, humid day, I painted the dresser with the first coat of primer. I actually had a little fun doing it. I'm using oil-based Kilz as my primer, and will be using regular latex satin paint for the topcoat.

after the second coat of primer

This morning, before it had a chance to get hot, I did the second coat of primer. I hate painting with primer, but the dresser is beginning to look better because of it!

The majority of the dresser will ultimately be white, so the primer gives me an idea of how the finished piece will look. I'm excited! Hopefully Adam and I will pick out the (many) paint colors for the drawers, and I can get started painting actual colors!

Stay tuned...

wip: dresser

my workspace

I have been working diligently on my new dresser. So far I have sanded about 1/3 of it. Most of my time has been spent going to Lowe's and trying to rebuild the missing broken-off corners. When I bought it, I obviously didn't inspect it closely enough. But all these repairs give me something to do, I suppose. 

one finished corner

I have been using white wood filler to recreate the corners. It looks silly now, but it should look fine once I paint everything. I've been testing the new corners, and the wood filler seems pretty strongly attached. We'll see how durable it is. Adam has another idea for fixing these broken areas, but I'm not sure I want to invest in a hacksaw just yet. 

The real difficulty is not in the corners, but in these huge splintered areas along the bottom edges of the drawers. I am this close to deciding that I wouldn't mind a lived-in roughed-up look. After all, this dresser will just be used in my sewing room and (hopefully) used by little kiddos in the future.

We'll see! I just can't wait to get to the painting stage...

unfinished repairs

it almost matches

not so much