Project House to Home: Distressed Dresser Refinish + Redecorated Bedroom Corner

Happy Friday everyone!

The reality of getting married so soon started to settle in and I realized I needed to do everything. I had so many pieces of furniture just sitting around waiting to be finished and so I picked the dresser since we are in major need of some storage, and I love how it turned out, especially compared to how it looked before!

I love it so much I think I’m going to do the whole bedroom suit the same way, stained drawers with a painted body! This project had many firsts for me since it was more than just painting, so I’ll leave a step-by-step below!

Total project cost: roughly $85

Supplies needed:

Paint ( I used Behr Premium Plus Ultra in semi-gloss in the color “Dark Ash”)
Stain (I used Miniwax Wood Finish in “Classic Gray”)
Paint Stripper (if your piece is painted)
Putty knife
Orbital sander (I use this one) with both coarse and fine grit papers
Tack cloth
Heat gun
Wipe-on poly (I used this one)
Paint brush and small foam roller
Staining cloth (old t-shirt works for this!)
Gloves

Steps for painting: So, I painted the body of the dresser, and I paid a little more for a better paint than I used with the coffee table I did last and it was sooo worth it. No priming beforehand and done in two coats, even though the piece was black! Aside from priming though, you can refer back to either of my last two projects on a step by step for how to prep and paint a piece (here and here!)

Steps for stripping and staining:

Since my piece was painted and I wanted stained drawers, I knew I’d have to strip them which would be a first for me. Take off all hardware and remove drawers from your piece. I used this video on how to strip paint as my guide, and I tried both methods the man in the video suggested (heat gun with putty knife as well as sanding!) Honestly, I don’t know if it was the stripper I used or what, but the paint did NOT come off like it did in the video for me haha (rarely goes that way right?) it was a process where I had to chip away at it even with the help of the heat gun and I finally gave up and tried my sander, which worked! But unfortunately I only had fine grit paper with me so it was still very time-consuming to get the drawers down to bare wood! Anywho, once all of the drawers were down to bare wood, I got all of the sanding dust off using tack cloth, then dipped my old t-shirt strip into the stain and began applying in the same direction as the grain of the wood, horizontally. You let the stain sit for just a few minutes and then wipe off the excess with a clean rag and keep repeating the process until the stain is to your liking, and in my case it took about 4-5 coats for the drawers before I was satisfied! After that, simply wait till they are dry and then do a coat of wipe on poly and then reattach your fixtures after being allowed to dry!

The knobs were actually the most expensive part of this project 😂 I did mix and match bronze knobs from Hobby Lobby using these ones, these ones and these ones!