I have always felt that if you have a sturdy old piece of furniture with nice lines that you don’t love but can easily transform it into something fairly attractive, you may as well stick with it.  Such is the case with the dresser that has lived in my bedroom since I was 4 years old.  At least.  It may have been around longer than that.  It started with little painted flowers on it and got painted white when I was in late middle school and the flowers were no longer cool and deemed to be unacceptable.  It has been touched up several times since.  I actually still like the way it looks so it seemed stupid to buy something new.   I decided instead that I would give it some color.  Green to be exact.  My favorite color.

Before:

 Sad, sad, sad.  Obviously I had not styled or attempted to make this look attractive in any way.  The drawers aren’t even in the right place.  Also, please disregard tv set circa 1990.

When I paint furniture that is heavy, I usually just leave it inside.  I have a plastic tarp and some wood blocks/scraps that I sit the dresser up on.  This way the dresser doesn’t stick to the tarp and pull the paint off.  I took the drawers out and painted them separately.  I used a paint from Benjamin Moore called Regal in Pearl formula that I hated working with.  My advice is NOT to use this paint for wood.  I thought I would save myself drying time.  From now on I will only use their Advance formula for wood.  It took me between 6 and 8 coats to cover.  That is ridiculous.  Advance would have taken 2 or 3 tops.  The color of the paint is also by Benjamin Moore and is just called “Green.”  Boring I know but I liked it best.

Since the dresser was already painted white and did not need priming, I cleaned it and then sanded it lightly with a fine grit sanding block by hand.  Then I wiped it off with a tack cloth and got to painting.  I started with a roller but I always get annoyed with the little stipply spots left with this thin paint and the brush was covering better so I switched to the brush.  Every few coats, I would let it dry completely and sand down any drips or uneven parts.  Then re-wipe with tack cloth and keep going.

Fifty million coats later…

I bought the hardware at Lowe’s and mix and matched two different types to fit what I wanted.  They are actually not even the same finish but you would never know.  The top one is an octagonal shape and the bottom is a bin pull.   The lamps I have had and used to be on my nightstands until I made an exciting discovery that I will discuss when I share a headboard project that I am getting ready to start working on.  The lamps used to be aqua but didn’t work for me anymore so I spray painted them silver (cause shiny things make me happy)  and my mom recovered the shades for me with white linen and black ribbon for trim.  I spray painted the inside of the shades pink (cause pink also makes me happy).  Super easy and fun project.

My fancy gold shoes from Colleen’s wedding live in this bell jar. I got the idea from a picture I saw on Pinterest.  Don’t they look happy?

I bought the print of a map of the Northern Celestial Hemisphere from art.com and had it framed.  They have some other similar and super cool prints that they seem to have just gotten in.  I am feeling a little sad I don’t have those too.

Much much better.  At least if you like green.  In truth, I intend to buy a smallish flatscreen that will probably be placed on this dresser so things may not stay just like this.  Although I so rarely watch tv in my bedroom, I am in no hurry for this.