Dresser Makeover

I had been in pursuit of a narrow dresser for our living room for quite some time..... trying to find that perfect piece we could keep for years to come.

So when I brought this 70’s beauty home my husband thought I had lost my mind. These kinds of purchases I find are best not to run by him first. I found this on Craigslist one day and loaded it into my van while he was at work; and had it waiting to greet him in the garage when he got home. He's learned to know my kind of crazy... So when I asked him what he thought of it he said "I don't even want to know".

I saw good bones in this piece. Which is truly the most important part— you can change anything cosmetic, but you can’t change the structure. This piece is super heavy and solid. The drawers open and close well. I knew from the moment I saw it in person, it had good potential.

I first removed the drawer pulls, and created a work space in my garage.

Then I sanded the whole dresser down with a medium sandpaper, but was super light on the detailed panels. After that I sanded the whole thing again with a fine sandpaper to smooth it out. When that was all finished I gave it a good cleaning to get rid of the dust & make sure everything had been sanded properly.

For the paint I chose a chalk brand from Menards because I didn’t want it to be glossy or a completely smooth finish. It goes on pretty thick, so I only did 2 coats of paint.

After that I did 2 thin layers of polyurethane, with a 3rd layer on the top of the dresser for extra protection from spills & stains.

I let the polyurethane cure for a couple of days before I set anything on top of the dresser.

Then I installed some new pulls that I found on Amazon.

I have gotten so many compliments from guests in our home— and no one can believe the before pictures!

I hope you are inspired to try something yourself! If this lady can figure it out (I'm not handy at all), then you definitely can as well!