The Weathered Door

Elegant Empire Dresser with Glass Knobs

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I love the curvy legs on empire dressers, so when I saw this one on craigslist, I knew I needed it have it.

 

The dresser needed some love, there is a crack down the right side and a chunk out of the top… along with other dents and scratched. I really love when a piece is not is perfect condition, it shows it’s age and all those marks are part of it’s story. You’ve got to embrace it.

Before the finish was some type of stain in a red color. The wood already has red undertones, so the color of the stain made it even more red. I personally prefer darker, mocha wood tones. For this piece I decided to stain the drawers and paint the frame of the dresser (I feel like I have been doing this a lot lately). Somewhere I saw a piece with stained drawers and a painted frame, but the two small top drawers were painted as well. I decided to try it out on this piece. I really love the way it looks, but I understand it is not for everyone.

I used an orbital sanded on the drawers. I started with 80 grit sandpaper, then moved to 150 grit. Orbital sanders can leave funky little swirly marks, so I used another new-to-me sander (from an estate sale) that is electric, but not orbital, and finished with 220 grit sandpaper to really smooth the drawers out and get them ready for stain. It was hard to get all of the finish off, plus the wood on the drawers really varies in color, so they have a more worn/rustic look rather than a perfectly finished look. I like it though!

I used my go-to stain, Rustoleum’s Dark Walnut. The color is great and it is water based, which means easy clean up! I also use Rustoleum Poly in the satin finish to seal after I stain (two coats on the drawers). I only used one coat of stain since I did not want the drawers to come out too dark, and they dried within the hour since it was so nice out this weekend!

For the body of the dresser I use homemade chalk paint with baking soda. The color is a custom mix of Sherwin William’s Poirpoise and Stone Mason. Poirpose has some brown tones in it which helps to warm up the grey. It was approximately a 50/50 mix of the two colors. I painted on two coats, then used 220 grit sand paper and hand sanded it down to smooth it out. The baking soda make really rough finish, but once you sand it down it gets all smoothed out. I also did a little bit of distressing just on the edges as I went. The painted parts are sealed with Minwax Finishing Paste, then I added the glass knobs that it came with and this baby was all finished!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Before and After, Furniture Makeovers, Stained Furniture

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Comments

  3. I love how this turned out, I really like the combination of painting and staining together on one piece. I recently subscribed via email to your blog posts and I'm so glad I did, I love seeing all your new pieces!

    Tania

    Reply

  9. Haven't heard about using baking soda…I used diatomaceous earth and it works great. I'll try the baking soda, though. Love new thinking!
    Beautiful piece.

    Reply

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