Theo rarely uses Instagram or Facebook, so he has become best friends with the Nextdoor app. He is always on there perusing the free and for sale section to see if there are any hidden treasures. He has come through on so many occasions. We will have to make another post of just Nextdoor treasures that he has snagged for us! But for this post, I wanted to concentrate on how we flipped this MASSIVE dresser and how it became the focal point for our entire bedroom. 

So as you can probably guess, Theo found this dresser on Nextdoor and he texted it to me to see if I could envision it as well. We wanted a large and substantial dresser and WOW are they expensive. I found a large one that I fell in love with and it was over $2,000 *OOF*. This dresser is 74 inches long, 35 inches tall and 19 inches deep and ~ONLY 40 DOLLAS~. We have a 55 inch TV mounted above it and we did not want the TV to overpower the dresser. We asked our kind neighbors for the dresser measurements and when they sent back how big it was, I knew it had to be ours. The large length allowed for ample space on either side of the TV.

The details of the dresser gave it so much charm, we wanted to keep that charm, but definitely modernize it a little bit. We originally wanted to sand it down and stain it, but we had other wood tones in the bedroom and we didn’t want them to clash. I decided that we should paint it black because it will modernize it a bit and make the gold perfectly patina’d brass hardware just POP!

Let’s dig in and show you how easy it is! The whole process just took one day and costed us $70 in total for materials and the dresser itself.

🛠 Tools needed for the project [For a full breakdown of what we bought (with link/prices), click on this Link to our Project Checklist]:

  • 2 in angled brush (only brush we use! so easy to cut in, and so comfortable with the flexible handle) $5
  • Multi Tool (Totally not necessary for this project, but we find that we use this for almost every single project! A total staple!)
  • Screw Driver

📦 Materials we used (this may differ with your bench space):

  • Furniture Paint (1 qt was plenty!) $25
  • An old dresser or any furniture
  • Bar of soap or wax (Only if you are working with an older piece that has sticking drawers)

First, we removed all the drawers and then wiped everything down thoroughly. If you want the paint to adhere properly, a clean surface is absolutely necessary. This will ensure durability and prevent the paint from chipping.

There were these little nubs/buttons/nubbys/plugs (whatever professional term you prefer) on the sides of the dresser. We decided to use our multi-tool to zip that baby right off to provide a nice and smooth look. I sanded it down to be perfectly flat. It left behind a circle of raw wood, but we knew the paint would cover that up.

Next we removed all the hardware to ensure it had a beautiful smooth paint job on the wood behind it, and that no paint touched this brass!

We then started all the painting.

  • With all the drawers removed and facing upward it was easy to quickly give them a thin first coat.
  • Then we moved onto the dresser. We only painted what would be exposed.
  • By the time we were done with the dresser, the drawer fronts were ready for a second coat (thanks to summer heat and a very thin first coat)
  • Then another second coat for the dresser
  • Let it dry for a couple hours and just because we knew it would be used everyday, we added a third and final coat before going to bed.

The next day it was ready to go into our bedroom and be stuffed with our clothes! We did not put any items on the top of the dresser for at least a week to allow the paint to properly cure. (We probably should have done that before adding the hardware and putting the drawers back too, but who has that kind of patience?!)

PRO-TIP! When restoring old wooden furniture, it does not have the modern day drawer glides. This makes opening and closing the drawers to be a little tough. We rubbed old bars of soap anywhere where wood touched wood and now these babies FLY open. We completed this project over a year ago and the drawers are still gliding perfectly. They also sell wax bars on Amazon specifically for this, but our old bar of soap has worked just fine. 😉

PS- We know our pothos (plant on the dresser) is looking a little sad. 🙁 We watered him right after this shot and he is springy, healthy, gorgeous, thriving and living his best life again.

Project Completed September 3, 2019