Dresser to TV Stand Transformation

Remember on Monday when I gave you a tantalizing view of the original dresser and harrowing tale of acquiring it? (If you don't it's here.)

Today we'll move on to part deux!

First things first - once I decided to get my butt in gear and work on it, the hubs moved it out of the garage, removed all the drawers, and used the shop vac to clean it. Fair warning, things you find sitting on the curb for free might have a million few cobwebs.

Before

Then, I stole my husband's got out my trusty screwdriver and took off all the pulls on the drawers. A few of the screw holes were mangled up\

We used the cheaper Ace brand - worked great!

Next, I used a hand sander to take of the shiny topcoat. The good news is the dresser had very little varnish, but was actually really well constructed and heavy duty - dove-tailing and everything!

As I was sanding I noticed all of the nicks and dings on the body and drawers. I got out some wood filler that we had been using on the refinishing the floors and filled in the holes. It was pretty simple to use and dried in about 15 minutes - I'm impatient enough! After it dried you have to sand it down again to make it smooth with the surface. I also used it to fill in some of the original holes for the pulls.

Finally, it was time for some paint! After reading a few how-to's (here, here, and here) I decided I should prime the dresser first. I used the basic white Glidden primer from Walmart on my dresser. I'm not sure how much of a difference it made with the appearance of the dresser, but hopefully it will to stand up to more wear and tear over the long haul.

Can you see my paint tray? Check out the aluminum foil -
it makes clean up and storage really easy!

To prime and to paint, I used a four inch trim roller along with a 1 1/2 inch brush. The trim roller is my new favorite painting tool for furniture. It reached almost all of the places I needed it to and I just followed it up with the brush to get in the tight spaces.

I used Ace brand paint - we're cheap - for the dresser, and let me tell you - it is so much better than the  Walmart brand! The color I picked was called "Going My Way" by Clark + Kensington Paints in semi-gloss. I put three thin layers of paint on it to get full and solid coverage. And no, Ace doesn't support me in any way, we just really like their store  and service.

The hubs was brave, especially considering this is a giant piece of furniture that will be pretty prominent in our house, but I think it paid off! Hopefully you'll agree too. Come back on Saturday for the final reveal!