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Cottage, DIY

LIGHT AND BRIGHT: GIVING A DRESSER NEW LIFE

March 13, 2014

Remember when I bought this dresser?

Oh, you don’t? Well that’s probably because I did that at least three years ago. I bought it because it was just sitting there in the thrift store and it looked so cool that I bought it. Without any plan for it.

You will be happy to know that I have stopped doing that: buying stuff at thrift stores that I don’t have a plan for. It almost never ends well.

In the case of this poor dresser it went into the garage. Where it sat and collected dust, spider eggs and a good amount of mildew.

Last year I dug it out, determined to fix it up or get rid of it. And when I did I was reminded of just how cool it is. It’s not the most well-made dresser. It’s all veneer, some of it in not such good shape, and while it’s sturdy, it’s not like this was built by a craftsman.

Dresser redo: paint, wood bleach and liming wax

I solved the mildew problem with a really good wipe down with white vinegar (which is a good idea with old furniture anyway because it takes care of smells as well. Then I sanded it down with 220-grit sandpaper just to rough everything up. In places where the veneer was lifting, I pulled it up and glued it back down with regular wood glue. I also filled some of the holes with and areas where the veneer was damaged with wood putty.

I used Zinnser BIN Cover Stain primer because it has good adhesion and I just wanted to seal up everything really well. Then I put on two coats of Benjamin Moore Aura semigloss in Mascarpone. And then I let it sit for more than a year while I figure out what to do with the drawers.

In that time, we managed to pile a bunch of stuff up on top of it and ruined the paint job on top, so when I took this project up again, I lightly sanded the top and put another coat of paint on it and then went back to the drawers.

I had already sanded them when I first started this project, but I gave them just a light touching up by hand with 220-grit and cleaned them well. I really liked the light color they were after sanding, but there was no way to keep that color because wax or polyurethane would darken it. So I used some wood bleach to lighten them up. I just bought a bottle at the hardware store and followed the directions. Honestly, I’m not sure how well it worked but I think they got a little lighter.

When they were dry I went back and used liming wax on them. The white of the liming wax brought out the grain, which I actually liked on this piece (which is unusual for me), and lightened up the wood. It also helped take out some of the yellow in the wood (which really isn’t coming through in these photos taken in the dark depths of my basement).

Dresser resurrection: Paint, wood bleach and liming wax

I still don’t know where this is going to live. I think once I get the finished half of the basement spruced up (seriously, will that EVER happen?) it might be nice there and could even be used as console for a television if we would have one down there.

It might not have a home immediately, but I still  love it. I’m happy I went out of my comfort zone of painting everything and did something different with this piece.

before and after DIY dresser
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
3 Comments

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previous post: Redesigning the back yard
next post: FEATURE FRIDAY: GREAT GATES

Comments

  1. Bootsie says: March 13, 2014 at 5:43 pm

    That's a nice piece, love things from that era. So glad you didn't cover the front grain, I love the choices you made with it.

    Reply
  2. JD says: March 13, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    At first a thought yuck, but you really made it look nice. I also like the drawer detail. jd

    Reply
  3. Heather - New House New Home says: March 14, 2014 at 11:50 am

    It looks great, Erin. I love the combination of the paint and bleached wood. Its a great piece

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
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