A Modern Update On a Timeless Piece

Last summer, I was lucky enough to work on a piece for a client/friend. In return for my work on the piece he gave me two amazing pieces that needed a bit of TLC. I kept one of these pieces for a long time and at one point considered selling it. For some reason I kept holding on to it, thinking I would do something to it at some point. Well that day finally came.

Here are some before pictures of this antique beauty...

The majority of the hardware was meaning, the keyholes were mismatched and whoever had painted the piece before, hadn't done a great job. There were paint drips and spills all over the inside and outside of this piece. Not to mention it had that old, musty smell some antique furniture picks up with age.

However, she's a beauty. The slats on the side....I'm always a sucker for those slats!

I really fell in love with the little details, like the carving on top and the details in between each drawer.

I decided to strip the top. The back was unfinished so I could see the piece was beautiful oak. I was amazed at what I saw underneath that black paint. The wood was in perfect condition and with a bit of elbow grease I had it looking brand new.

I stripped the top, then sanded it with 100 grit, then 220, then 500 grit until it felt smooth. After sanding I gave the top a coat Ebony stain by Rustoleum. I wasn't happy with how it looked. It was too dull and needed some contrast. The darkness of the Ebony only picked up the dark grain in the Oak, so I added a coat of Red Mahogany and that's when the magic happened. The wood, sparkled and had such depth. I was happy I'd gone to all the work to strip and sand the top. I sealed the top with two coats of wipe-on poly.

For the body, I went with a custom mix of Chalk Paint™by Annie Sloan. I mixed, Louis Blue, Florence, a bit of Napoleonic Blue, Antibes Green and English Yellow to make a beautiful, deep blue. To seal this beautiful color, I used clear wax by Annie Sloan on the entire dresser. Then for the drawers, I made a mix of clear wax and Pure White Chalk Paint™ and wiped that on to give the drawers more depth and contrast. The whole piece was distressed using 220 grit sandpaper to give it some age, but just a light amount of distressing was needed. To give the dresser that final touch I added new drawer hardware by Martha Stewart from Home Depot.

Here she is after all the work.....she's even prettier than before!

I couldn't be happier with the contrast between the custom blue and the stained wood. Would you just look at those slats?!!

I think the drawer hardware works perfectly on this piece and gives it a modern, updated vintage style.....exactly what I was going for.

One of the details I fell in love with on this piece was the detail in between the drawers.

The wood is beautiful on this piece. I'm happy I was able to bring out a bit of the beautiful wood and still paint the rest of the piece. Best of both worlds!

One thing I forgot to take a picture of was the insides of the drawers. I painted the insides of each drawer in Chalk Paint™ by Annie Sloan in Coco. It's a beautiful color combo!

Also, to rid the piece of that old, musty smell this piece had acquired over time I coated the drawers and the inside of the dresser with Zinsser Shellac. It's an easy solution for ridding furniture of stinky smells.

This piece is a definite keeper. It's going in our upstairs office, which is the last room in the house to be finished. The hubby is getting impatient and tired of working in the junk room. This has been the dumping ground for everything that doesn't have a home. Now that I've finished this beautiful piece, I guess it's time to get to work on the upstairs office! Wish me luck!

I've been really busy working on projects this week. It's been nice to get back to what I love to do. I'll be sharing what I've been working on next week. Lots of things to share.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I enjoy hearing from you and reading your comments, so keep them coming please!