A LONG time coming!

Before we get too far, I will apologize in advance for the poor "staging" pictures Kelli's dresser.  I took the photos with my Iphone, in my garage...it doesn't get much worse than that.  However, it probably won't get moved until this weekend so, if I wanted to share pics sooner than later, it had to be!

My blog post title pretty much says it all.  This transformation has taken about a year and a half (at least) and should have been done in a weekend, TOPS.  But coulda, shoulda, woulda...it's all water under the bridge now!

I showed you the original dresser that I picked up at an estate sale for $65:

A smokin' deal!  We never had any intentions of leaving it in it's original state although over all, it was in good shape.

Then, if you remember, we thought it would be a good idea to silverleaf (hmmm...is that one work or two?) it.

Not. So. Much!

Now, this might have worked if you were talking about two very patient people trying to make it happen...but this was a little too tedious for me and Kelli has even less patience than I do!  So there it sat for a year while we tried to plan our next move.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  I ended up stripping/sanding the entire piece to get it to this stage:

And yes, the drawers too!

I went to Home Depot and looked at various strippers and decided that "Klean Strip" sounded like the way to go.

It was tedious to say the least.  I had to go through the silverleaf, the glue that was used to apply it AND the original stain.  I took as much off as possible with this, then sanded the rest.  It took a lot of sweat equity to get it prepared to start over.

Obviously, since silverleaf was what we used originally, you have figured out that we were looking for a "bling" look.  Paint seemed like the only other option, so after giving the dresser a coat of Rustoleum's Gray Primer, I opted to give Martha's paint a try:

The color I used was "Polished Silver".  Let me tell you about this paint.  It's relatively cheap (about $5.50 for this small jar) it goes on beautifully and it also goes a long way...you know there is a "but" coming, right?

BUT, if you are OCD about brush strokes, you may want to rethink this paint!  I thought I could get by it...turns out, I couldn't.  After painting the entire piece with a brush...I decided that I just couldn't let it go.  So, I went over the entire piece using my spray gun....ahhhhhh, much better.  Had I done it this way to begin with...I would have been done last week AND it would have only taken about two of these containers (thinned slightly) to do the entire dresser!

Still with me?

I won't make you wait any longer, I'm sure you didn't come by to hear me ramble all day...you are thinking, get on with it!

This is how she looks all done:

 

And because sometimes it's not just all about what you are wearing on the outside, I decided to line the drawers with this cool wrapping paper that I picked up at Home Goods:

So, there you have it!  Whatcha' think?

My thoughts?  Well, I would definitely use this paint again, and if you don't have an aversion to brush strokes, just paint it on with a brush!  If you do...save yourself the time and money and just spray it on the first time!

There is a mirror that goes with and yes, it will get done!  When it is, I will take a picture with the entire piece sitting in Kelli's bedroom!

And because you have been so patient...one more peek:

This post linked to:

My Repurposed Life




Till next time...