I bought this dresser about 3 or 4 years ago for my son’s bedroom at a thrift store for $30. It was in good condition then, but something that I wouldn’t care if he destroyed because it wasn’t a lot of money. So for the first two years it just sat in my son’s room, when we got him newer furniture that dresser went into my craft area. But I wanted it to look more crafty and fun.
This was the first makeover it received: I stripped it down to the bare wood as much as possible. With it being my first project ever, it didn’t turn out good at all. So it ended up somewhat white with colorful star and heart wood cutouts all over it and I covered the top with flannel squares. It stayed like this for another year and a half.
We recently bought a house and I now have a craft/sewing room and this dress found a home again. This time after doing other smaller projects and a lot of research on some other AMAZING blogs, I learned how to do this correctly. I completely stripped the dresser using orange stuff at Wal-Mart that worked well (I have 2 Yorkies and I’m always worried about chemicals around them).
- I sanded the whole thing. First I used a medium 80 grit paper to get off the remaining finish and stubborn spots, then with a fine 120-220 until it was smooth and ready for finishing.
- I painted it with Valspar primer (2coats) first in white because the last time I painted it without primer it looked bad.
- Then I used Valspar white high gloss white to finish it with only a little light sanding in between coats (2 coats).
- After the semi gloss dried completely I painted the drawer front with Valspar satin Betsy Ross House Blue (2 coats).
