house update #4

a few weeks before moving in, i discovered that dan had this crazy-awesome red, brown and gold dresser. i wish i would have gotten a picture of it before i dismantled the large, round, very retro mirror and removed the gold drawer pulls with the large red jewels, but alas, i did not. here's a little before shot of the part we decided to keep.

brown, gold and red was not in our decor plan so i decided i'd try my hand a refurbishing this jewel. i researched the total cost of the products, and probably spent around $40 on supplies, including the new pulls, so it was well worth the work!

this was a time consuming process, but not a difficult one. really. if i can do it, so can you. first, i moved the dresser onto a plastic tarp and removed the drawers and drawer pulls.

next, i did a little sanding and cleaning. i used 100 grit sand paper, and gave it a good scrub down with some tri-sodium phosphate, or as the say in the biz, some TSP. once you've wiped off the excess dirt and cleaner, you're ready to prime. i gave the dresser two coats of this beauty.

now we're ready for paint. i used martha stewart's, driftwood gray.

after that, it's time to seal that junk, with some polyurethane. this is the kind i used.

warning: using this kind will yellow your project. at first i wanted to cry because i thought i had ruined the dresser, but remembered a concrete floor we sealed with this once, and it had the same effect. dan thinks it looks antiquey, ha! the last few steps were adding the new drawer pulls, and putting it all back together. here's a final picture after we got moved in.

i'm pretty happy with it overall, but i probably won't be trying my hand at this again anytime soon. while we are at it, here are a few other peeks at the master bedroom.

thanks for reading!