Boyish no More! Antique Dresser Gets a Girly Makeover

You know.....maybe you can relate to this....but sometimes I almost feel silly about how girly my taste is.  I have this inner struggle when I'm working on projects.  My head tells me to try something different, try and make something that also appeals to a man once in a while.  But honestly, I just can't!!  Every time I try to deviate from my 'signature style'.....I end up having to start over. 

So, this little dresser had such a little boy feel to it and my inner girly girl just wouldn't have it.   I practically had to perform an exorcism!

I recently painted a beautiful Chippendale style bench, (a tremendous amount of work) only to have the paint fail to adhere.  I can literally scratch it off with my fingernail and that was NOT one of my many HAPPY accidents.  Normally I only lightly sand my projects.  But I was so paranoid I'd have the same problem with this antique, I ended up stripping it down to the bare wood.  Of course, as is typical, I failed to take a before picture.  But here it is after it was stripped. I added the little embellishment on the back. 

and primed, ah better already....

So here are the steps I took: 

- it was stripped to the bare wood

- an embellishment was attached to the back apron

- it was primed and the entire thing painted in white

- the drawers only were painted with a soft blue over the white

- the entire piece was sanded with my amazing new Makita palm sander.  Man I love that thing!!!

- white washed over the entire piece with Miss Mustard Seeds Ironstone Milk paint

- dry brushed the drawers only with a mix of Miss Mustard Seeds French Enamel and Kitchen Scale

 - distressed the last coats with a damp rag (you can do that with milk paint and it distresses to reveal the previous layers, it's an awesome product)

- transferred the Paris address using the wax paper transfer method

- washed the original hardware and sprayed them with metallic silver,  then sanded so just a bit of the brass shows thru

- clear coated the entire project two coats

- buffed it down to a soft sheen with fine steel wool

put it all back together!

WOW WOW WOW!!!

 That was a lot of work!!!

But TA-DA!!

I LOVE THIS PIECE!!!  And as much as I love little boy's, especially my two (now grown men), this is no longer a little boy's dresser, nope, nope, nope!!  Here it is pictured in my booth, soooooo sweet!

I'm happy to say this piece is now SOLD!

The little end table can be seen here (also SOLD)

Caio!!