Shabby to Chic Dresser

Refreshing A Older Dresser

Okay so I apologize, that headline is a bit of click bait. In my humble opinion this dresser was never really shabby but, after a bit of love and paint, its totally chic! Not too long ago my husband and I were given the opportunity to take a bedroom set from his grandmother. She was downsizing and no longer had space for the two dressers, two night stands, and mirror. The set was painted a cream color and looked a bit “french” in design. My husband was a bit skeptical, but I knew we could take this set from shabby to chic and give it a bit of a refresh.

Second admission, with moving, keeping a two year old alive, and other draws on our time, my parents did the brunt of the work on these pieces. But, they love this kind of a project. In fact, they used to restore and refinish antiques for friends and family all the time. I grew up helping where I could and think this is where my love for antiques came from. When I showed them photos of this set, they immediately agreed that with minimal work, the set could go from shabby to chic no questions.

What we did to refresh the set:

Cleaning

First thing after transporting the set to my parents cabin in the woods, was to give it a good cleaning. We knew that we were going to paint the majority of these pieces. You need a nice clean surface for that pain to adhere to. Part of this means removing the hardware. My mom typically soaks these overnight but since these were in pretty good shape she opted to shine them up a bit with vinegar.

Sanding

Next, my dad sanded down the tops of the dressers. We knew that there was beautiful wood underneath the paint so this work was totally worth it. There was a little bit of detail around the top edge that we sanded down a bit to simplify the edges. It made it easier to take off the paint and it didn’t take away from the overall look and feel. If we wanted to keep it, we would have been there for quite a while with q tips and paint stripper.

Staining and Varnish

We picked a medium stain and applied it to the top of the dresser with a rag. This was really satisfying. The pieces ended up with a rich brown wood tone on top. To protect it we took a varnish coat that was matte vs shiny and applied a few coats. This will keep the pieces, night stands especially beautiful for years to come.

Painting

This was the home stretch. We selected a base paint designed for furniture and door trim and then color matched the vanity and night stands to a blue we had through our old house. These would become the furniture in our guest bedroom. We chose Van Deusen blue from Benjamin Moore.

The dresser, which is all around chefs kisses, we saved until we knew what our new house’s master bedroom color scheme would be. We ordered this beautiful green velvet bed frame and fell in love with emerald green for our new master suite. Our local paint store was out of my go to base so I went to Lowe’s for Valspar’s version and ordered it in Favorite Green.

Next Steps

We plan on removing the castors next. There is a mirror that went with the vanity dresser that I have other plans for – so stick around for a bit more DIY project updates.