Thursday, January 13, 2011

Dresser Make-over: mid-project progress post

Yes, that post title is a mouthful. Remember the drawer-less yellow dresser I rescued from the sidewalk near my apartment a couple of weeks ago? Well yesterday while snowed in, I began to make some progress on it. Sure it still needs proper shelves, doors etc, but at least now it is a pretty color that looks good in its new home.

Before:

There was some structural disrepair in the right front corner, which I fixed up with a bit of wood glue and a very delicate and technical process that involved hitting the side of the dresser with as much force as i could muster, repetitively until the pieces met and sat flush.

I thought the yellow paint was a cute idea, and I always wish I could be bold enough to introduce some pops of bold primary yellow into my design scheme, but it never seems to work out quite right. I knew as soon as I saw the piece in the space that I wanted it to be a deep, rich charcoal gray.

The original paint job was messy, with drips of paint in a lot of places. So I first gave the piece a pretty thorough sanding with my little Black and Decker Mouse (I left the top, which is laminate, alone. A little scrub down with cleaner was all it needed). Then I gave it two even coats of charcoal gray paint.

As you can see I removed the bottom piece, which used to sit under the bottom of the drawers. This piece had some water damage. I played around with my jig-saw for a bit trying to salvage pieces, but eventually gave up. That weird piece of fabric sitting inside is a tablecloth. I am  not really sure why I put it like that. It won't be staying there. Especially since it is actually my mother's and I should return it.

Next comes the cabinet doors and figuring out if I can actually execute the plan that is currently developing in my head. At the moment that vision is something like this:

click to make larger.

We'll see!

Also, is anyone else as amused as I am by my foyer's ability to transform into a workshop at a moment's notice?

1 comment:

  1. Why, yes, I AM as amused as you are! Who'da thunk it!? You're so handy!

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