Dresser Makeover

Yesterday I finally got around to painting an old dresser I....found on the side of the road 9 months ago. I'm not sure which aspect I should be more ashamed of: The fact that I'm posting back to back trash projects, or the fact that this dresser sat in my house in this condition for 9 months.

I've decided not to worry about either. Can't win them all, right? 

I wanted to retain the true "cast-off trash" aura of the piece, so I decided to redo it only using items I had leftover from other projects. I like to do projects this way every few months to use up leftover crafty stuff.

 I succeeded, so this makes this total project cost: ZERO dollars. 

I'm pretty excited about that.

Here's the big reveal:

 What do you think?

There were a few problems we had to overcome. The right side of the dresser looks liked like this:

While the left side of the dresser looked like this:

At first, this seemed like a deal breaker. But once I looked a little closer, I realized I could just take the ride side molding off.

Easy peasy.

Then I introduced our dirty little dresser to Mr. Clean.

I filled in the gouges and nail holes with a little bit of Elmer's Wood Filler.

Someday I'll invest in a putty knife.

Once the filler dried (it took about 15 minutes), I ran the mouse sander all over it to prep for painting.

 It took about three coats of white paint to cover it all. I ran out of paint towards the end...but I had enough ivory spray paint left over from another project to finish it. "Good enough" is becoming an increasingly popular motto around here.

A few months ago I bought some pink vinyl shelf liner from Micheal's. It was on super sale, and I wanted to use it to cut stencils with the Cricut. I decided to use it in this dresser instead.

I roughed up the edges a bit for some distressed effect...something that baffles my husband, Cory, every time I do it. I'm not sure if I'm completely happy with how the distressing looks now, but it definitely helps the cute details on this dresser stand out. Right?

Here's a look at the side molding trouble spot:

I use this dresser to organize my crafty stuff. Pretty paper, unused picture frames, at least nine different types of adhesive, etc. I love the versatility of dressers! It's right next to the desk/closet where I keep my desk and sewing machine for easy access during projects.

That's how I filled my spare time on a busy Saturday! It feels so good to get that long awaited project DONE. You should tackle that project you've been putting off. I know you have one.

Lindy