Number Two!

I'm super excited about furniture re-do number two! Here's what I found at salvation army for $20:

I sanded the whole thing down (mistake! I should have stripped!), so I could do a paint wash. Even with the orbital sander this took forever, and I ended up buying a $75 Dremel just to get in the grooves of the drawers.

Here's what it looked like after the sanding:

I left some dark spots, and even touched a few places with some dark stain before painting. I didn't paint it with primer this time for two reasons: 1. It's bare wood, so there isn't much reason 2. I wanted to make a thin "wash" out of the paint that I bought so the wood grain would show through.

I wanted to do a pretty bright color this time, so I decided on a limey-green latex. I also bought some floetrol. I ended up mixing the two about half and half and painted the entire dresser. I didn't do any after sanding. The paint was so thin that all the details and wood grain showed though wonderfully. I also found some very reasonably priced copper hardware at Lowe's that looks great!

Here's the final piece:

A close up of the hardware:

The Breakdown:

60 grit sand paper for the orbital sander - $19

Floetrol  - $5

Dremel (this really shouldn't count) -  $75
Glidden Satin Latex  -  $25
8 Brainerd Cabinet Pulls @ $1.70  - $14
4 Brainerd Cabinet Knobs @ $1.20  -  $5

Total $143 (minus the dremel, which will obviously be used again $68)

My first furniture re-do ever!!!

I'm so super excited about this one. I've been wanting to do stuff like this for a while, and what better to start with than a dresser from the FREE section of Craigslist!

Here's the before (sorry my photography isn't that great. They were taken on my phone):

The drawers were a little jankety (that's a word right?), and there were a few places that were separating, but overall not that bad. I fell in love with the shape immediately, so I knew i had to so something with it.

I spent about $70 overall at Home Depot, but some of that was on things that I will re-use (clamps, a gallon of antique white paint, putty, putty knife, etc.), so my budget was actually way under this in the long run.

I ended up having to use ratcheting straps around the legs, and wood glue to get rid of the separation on the left side. Then I puttied (and puttied, and puttied, and probably did more puttying). This part took the longest for sure, and it didn't help that I HATED the kind of putty I bought. I sanded the putty, but left the rest of the dresser, since I was using a good primer. I used kilz oil based primer, which is amazing. It cover's really nice, and made the latex paint I was using go on super nice with no peeling.

The whole dresser was painted with Glidden latex antique white in satin. I don't remember the color name, but it's the darkest white you can get without looking yellow. It turned out really pretty. I sanded a few edges to accent the details and antique it a little, then I touched those places with some dark stain. I wish I had put the stain on first before painting and then sanded through to it because I had to be extra careful to not touch the paint with it, which was hard, but it still worked out okay.

Here's the finished dresser:

Here's the breakdown:

Dresser  -  Free (yay!)
2-4 in. C-Clamps @ $8  -  $16
Plastic wood (please don't use this!)  -  $5
Putty knife  -  $5

1 quart Kilz oil-based primer  -  $7

6 drawer pulls @ $1.20  -  $7
1 gallon Glidden satin latex paint  -  $25
Mahogany Minwax  -  $5

Total of $70 YAY!