I have been busy around the house completing some projects and thought I'd post some how-to's and show some before/ after photos since that's what we really love about DIY anyways :)
First up is my Grandmother's old dresser. This thing was COATED in some Poly like no other. I'm talking multiple coats of stripper to get this stuff off plus tons and tons of sanding.
I decided to finish the front with a map. The hardest part is finding the paper map honestly.. luckily my dad had a stash of old maps of Georgia and Tennessee so I chose the map of Nashville.
to do this, I took the map and put a layer of modge podge on the drawer as well as the top of the map. Once covered, we smoothed it over and let it dry. It really doesn't take much more than that! Now to find some knobs...
as you can see, it was a bright white dresser with very ugly handles. I already started the top before I realized I needed a picture! I had a few repairs to make to the structure of the piece (re-attaching some of the trim, fixing the drawer tracks and repairing some broken wood inside).
I decided to go with a mustard color (obviously) and made my own chalk paint for it. If you have used chalk paint before, you know it's pretty much an investment to do a few pieces of furniture. I looked up several recipes and landed one that works really well!
DIY CHALK PAINT
- 1/3 cup plaster of paris
- 1/3 cup warm water
- mix these together until you don't have any clumps
- add in 1 cup of latex paint, any color
- stir well!
if you need more, double the recipe. I usually keeps any extra in a cleaned out pickle jar but noticed the more it sits the more it settles. Go ahead and throw out what you don't use since it's so cheap to make :)
I did a few coats since the white was so glossy (no sanding necessary with chalk paint!)
because I didn't want white showing through when I sanded it, I took a sharpie and marked up the edges where I figured I would distress.
I painted all surfaces about 3 times. After it was dry, I did a light sanding to get rid of the rough texture (chalk paint is meant to be dull and a little rough. With a little sanding it becomes nice and smooth!)
I found some $1 hardware on Etsy from China? The old brass pulls were perfect with the mustard color. I also added some brown glaze to the surfaces so it didn't look like literal mustard. Now it's a more... aged mustard.
Voila!
Now for some views around the somewhat-finished room.
This is my first room that I love in this house. I love the wall, the old furniture and accessories, the $30 Nate Burkus curtains (!!!) and the new comforter. Anyone lookin' for a place to stay anytime soon? :)
Thanks for reading!