Summer Project: Covered in Dirt to Shabby Chic!

Let me preface this by saying I have NEVER done anything like this before.  

(That means anyone can do it!)

It's finished!

After two weeks of off and on hard work, a half a gallon of paint, and about $100, one of my two piece chest of drawers is finished.

Here's how it started...

I have been BEGGING Michael to let me buy a chest of drawers.  Currently, we don't have one in our bedroom.  We've been trying to make do with our closets, but our clothes have overflowed and are now on the floor.

We started looking, but could literally find nothing worth buying for less than $500.  It seemed like such a big chunk of change for something like this.  So, we kept looking.

Then, Mom tells me that there is a dresser and chest of drawers in my grandmother's "little house."  The little house is a storage area behind my grandmother's house.  The little house is full of furniture and other odds and ends.  It's also got a lot of little creatures living in it!

So, mom and I headed out the little house.  Here is a glimpse inside!  As you can see, it's full of stuff.  If you look under the basketball goal, you can see the top of one of the chest of drawers. 

This was the best picture I could get.

While covered in dust, dirt, and what we believe to be raccoon feces, the furniture had a lot of potential.    (I had a really hard time seeing this, but mom assured me we could make it beautiful.)  At one point, this set belonged to my great grandmother.  It was repainted by my grandmother at some point.

So, with Michael's help, we loaded it in the truck and brought it home.

1.  First, Mom takes off the hardware.

2.  She then cleans it off with soap and water.  I follow behind her with a Clorox wipe.  

3.  We then start sanding.  (Mom had a $20 power sander she had bought when painting our old house several years ago.  It worked great and saved so much time!)

                                     

4.  Mom then wipes it off with a towel again.  We tried to get off all the sanded paint remnants.  

It was now time to paint!

Let me backtrack and tell you about the paint color we chose.  

I had recently discovered the wonderful product of "Oops Paint."  You can get paint at an extremely discounted rate at Home Depot or Lowe's if someone makes a mistake when mixing a can of paint.  Mom and I had checked out all the places and couldn't find anything that was really interesting, so I was left to pick out my own color. 

I turned to Pinterest to help me make my decision.  We have a dark brown headboard.  I knew I didn't want to paint the dressers brown.  I wanted a fun color.  So, started looking at different beautiful bedrooms on Pinterest.  I came across this picture... 

I loved the mix of yellow and dark wood.  

That led me to the "Yellow Frost" color at Lowe's.

5.  We started on our first coat.  (We brought the furniture inside because of the threat of rain.  We used two drop cloths.  One made out of canvas, the other out of plastic.)  The paint we chose had a primer built in it, so we did not prime.  We used a foam roller brush, small foam brush, and some regular paint brushes to do the painting.

That is what it looked like after one coat.  Here's a close up...

6.  It took about three coats to get the furniture the way I wanted it to look.  I got really busy the week after we started this project, so the furniture set in our living room for a while.  When I had a moment, I'd work on it.  

7.  Finally, it was done, and it was time for me to pick out and put on the hardware.  This was my favorite part, because I knew this could really make the dressers get the look I wanted them to have.

I searched Lowe's, Home Depot, and Target, but found nothing but the same old boring pieces.

My friend Jaimee mentioned how she had found some cute pieces at Hobby Lobby.  Man was she right!  They had everything.  

I decided on this piece...

They were having a 50% off sale, so these were only $2 each, instead of $4.  Hobby Lobby seriously had so much to choose from.  The only problem was, it was difficult to find a lot of one set.  They have signs up saying they can order whatever you need to finish your project, but I wanted to finish my project that day!  

Luckily, they had 24 of those pieces!  

8.  After putting all the pieces on, we now have a beautiful new dresser.  (I still have to put the hardware on the other dresser!  I'll post it when it's done.)