Furniture re-dos Makeovers Shabby Paints

Heavily distressing…..for a distressed antique dresser

This week I am working on catching up on life. I have quite a few “balls in the air” and am mid-project on at least three things. As I finish up, have a look at this dresser refresh from a few years ago. Hopefully you’ll gain some inspiration and confidence to try a distressed project of your own.

Ok, before you start to worry, I’m ok… I’m just in a phase… a heavy distressed phase.

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I had some super cool pieces in my stash and just need them to speak to me. Shabby Paints has some fabulous colors and speak they did!

Here is where this started… a sorry state of affairs if you ask me.

antique dresser with peeling veneer and missing handles in a workshop setting

Did you get a look at that drawer front? Someone had a rough time of it… “been rode hard and put away wet” as my mom would say…

close up of antique dresser front with peeling veneer

Don’t get discouraged by peeling. It’s not difficult to fix, just time consuming. Get yourself a decent wood filler product and go to town…

antique dresser drawer trim being filled with shabby paints texture product for wood filler

Glue down any lifting veneer pieces. Grab a putty knife and spread on the filler. Then, carefully trim out the areas where the veneer is supposed to be. I used an awl to scrape along the edges and create the shapes then I let it dry. After a coat of Mojito (a beautiful, soft mint green), I just used Hazelnut reVAX like stain on the top and drawer front.

antique dresser with one coat of Shabby Paints Mojito on body. top drawer and top of dresser are still wood tone with Shabby Paints Hazelnut ReVax Stain/sealer

I went to town sanding this baby down. First with my Ryobi orbital sander and then with plain ‘ol elbow grease.

QUICK TIP: Dampening the painted surface with a spritz of water gives a more natural distressed appearance because it rehydrates the outermost layer of paint and the paint “slurry” created fills in brush strokes and swirls/scratches created by sanding.

…and you know what happens when you use wood filler on mahogany and forget to paint or tint it first? Umm, it’s kind of obvious it’s not the same wood. No need to panic…ReVAX (and a tiny artist paintbrush) to the rescue! It tints pretty well..just add additional coats until you get the desired color depth.

close up of wood filler areas that were not tinted or stained prior to painting.

Then I gave a try with just changing out the top knobs….

Antique dresser with heavy distressing and glass knobs on top drawer in workshop setting
close up of glass knobs on top drawer

NOPE, those were lovely, but not quite right… So the quest began for what this girl needed. Digging through my huge stash I started texting my poor girlfriend who had to go through EVERY test with me… that’s what friends are for, right? (and for the the record, you can totally send me pictures of every knob you want to try, I will analyze the heck out of it with you)

Eureka! Seriously… it was THIS easy..?! These were originally painted white a gazillion years ago. I just sanded the snot out of them to get this look:

front of dresser with handles changed to solid wood painted white and heavily distressed as well.

Not wanting to let your last look be in my messy workshop, I lugged this beauty across the yard to get this shot for you:

Antique heavily distressed dresser finished and displayed in a field of daffodils next to a bent trunk tree.

Pretty stinkin’ awesome, right?

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Around the time I worked on this, I also painted this amazing Antique Trunk. The Trunk uses a hot color called “Pardon Me” Can you guess what shade that is?

I used this same color to paint the kitchen in The Goat Loft too. It’s a bit of a different look and still spectacular.

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pinnable image of dresser in field of daffodils

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3 Comments

  • Reply
    Shabby Shannon
    April 23, 2015 at 9:36 AM

    As your go to knob picking therapist I can honestly say this is a home run! She is beautiful from top to bottom!

    • Reply
      Scottie
      April 23, 2015 at 12:23 PM

      You are sure good at your job my dear! 😉 thanks again!

      • Reply
        Shabby Shannon
        April 23, 2015 at 3:44 PM

        Glad you think so..I’ll be sending you a bill for therapy 🙂 I have a desk I’m going to try and get to tonight so I’ll need some help soon myself.

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