Tall Solid Maple Wood Dresser
Tall Solid Maple Dresser makeover.
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I picked this Tall boy up a few months back, and am just now getting to it. If you don't already know, Maple is a very heavy hard wood, so this piece is VERY heavy. Maple is beautiful! The only downfall to it is that it doesn't take very well to stain. This pieces is just going to get a quick little makeover with some paint.
Some people complain about painting beautiful wood pieces. I personally don't see the harm in it. I love both beautifully stained pieces and painted pieces. I look at it this way... If the piece is painted, there is nothing stopping the next owner from stripping it down and staining it... that's the beauty of solid wood pieces, they quite literally never lose their value.
Here he is before I got my hands on him... I also have to tell you! I got SUPER lucky.. there was another handle on the top. I believed that I was only missing one, which is a huge bummer, but since I scored the dresser for such a good deal, I didn't mid so much... BUT when I got home and took the drawers out to look over the dresser, I FOUND IT! It's the small things in life... I tell you! HAH.
I used some paint that I had around the house to finish him. I'm trying to best to inch away from the traditional 'in' farmhouse look. I LOVE the farmhouse look.. but to be honest I'm getting tired of only refinishing in that particular style. I'd like to get a little more artsy and out of the box, so.... starting with this piece.
I painted the drawers and the body of the dresser in a custom mixed white chalk paint.
The dresser had quite a few blemishes and imperfections. I am an imperfection lover...and I try to enhance them as much as possible, sometimes I even add to them to make them pop more!
To help make this dresser's imperfection pop I created a sort of fresco type of painting technique. What I did to the front of the drawers was along the lines of a 'wash technique'. A wash is when you water down paint, brush it on, and then immediately wipe it off with a cloth. I DID NOT water the plumish, brown paint that I used on the front of the drawers, and I DID NOT brush it on....
I used my hand.
YEP... you read that right. I used my hand, and boy did they look gross when I was done. I had the sample size paint on hand. I typically buy paint samples from Home Depot that were mis tinted for like a buck or so. My Dustin thinks I have a problem!
I took my fingers and I dipped them into the paint and rubbed the paint on top of the previous chalk painted drawer fronts. I added more paint in some areas, and less in others. I worked in small areas, because what I did after I smudge the paint on was wipe if off with a slightly damp cloth rag.
I thought about giving the handles a good oil rub... but after I attached them to the dresser I just couldn't! After the whole thing was painted I took a razor that I had near me at the time and I lightly distressed it to give it a little aged look.
Then I finished the whole thing off with some furniture wax, for this particular piece I used Minwax Paste Finishing Wax in Natural.
What do you think?!
I'm in love!
This portion of the post has nothing to do with the dresser, but rather our 1940s bungalow, I just like to keep those following on our adventure in the loop.
My Dustin and I FINALLY started on the bathroom and the kitchen in our full home renovation. Fingers crossed I'll be able to share a few blog posts about our house!
Last summer we completely took up the concrete floor in the basement and poured new with new drainage tiling.
Here are just a few pics of where we currently stand.