After a lot of waiting for the right dresser to come into my life, I finally scored this lovely French Provincial dresser from my local Buy Nothing Group. It must have been in a kid’s room, because it was a beaten up. Despite the mistreatment, it was in great structural shape.
The glass top was chipped, so I got rid of that. After a good scrub, I removed all the hardware. I then lightly sanded the top and sides. The finish on the top of the dresser was uneven (thanks to a thick layer of crackle paint) and needed to be smoothed out. I wanted to update the hardware, but had not found any I wanted to use (at least not at a price I wanted to pay). I spray painted the existing hardware gold.
TIP Attach hardware to a cardboard box to spray paint it. If you need to number which hardware piece goes where, write it on the box. You can hold up all the hardware at once while painting and you quickly get a nice even coat on everything. Then all you have to do is set down the box and wait for the paint to dry.
I initially painted the dresser with an exterior semi-gloss green paint called Clover. I taped the edges of the drawers with painters tape (the blue stuff). I spray painted the insides and sides of the dresser drawers. The contrast with the newly painted gold hardware and the gold interior gave the dresser a lot of punch.
TIP Painting or covering (with wallpaper, contact paper, or with decoupage) the sides and interior of drawers can cover any blemishes and provides a more bespoke look. For even more personalization you can write or paint words, symbols, or phrases inside or on the sides of drawers. On this piece I hid a little bee on the back corner (not pictured).
Once I moved my furniture into my new bedroom, I realized the bright green didn’t go well in the room. I really loved the piece, but it just didn’t look right. I got out my paintbrush and Annie Sloan’s Amsterdam green chalk paint. I lightly sanded the dresser and cleaned it to remove any dust. I painted the dresser with a mix of the chalk paint and water. Applying thin coat allowed some bright green to peak through. I let the paint dry for a full day. The final coat was a mix of Annie Sloan’s clear wax and Old English’s scratch cover for dark wood. I still had not found a full set of hardware I liked. However, I found three different French Provincial pulls for about a dollar each. I spray painted them with the same gold paint I used on the other hardware. I put the new hardware just on the middle drawers. A matching set of French Provincial pulls on all the drawers would have been too much, having them just in the middle highlights them more.
The final result was perfect for the room. The mismatched pulls and lightly worn finish gave the piece a vintage luxury look. I paired the dresser with a mirror I purchased from a local consignment shop. The mirror’s wood frame had been completely stripped. I dry brushed the wood with gold acrylic paint. I then rubbed the paint to create a very thin finish. The end result allows you to see the mirror frame’s woodgrain, but with enough gold that it blends with the dresser.
