(Almost) New Dresser

A couple weekends ago, I found this old dresser at a garage sale for $20.

I have been looking for a piece like this will all the design and carvings to try out my new glazing process. I got this technique from All Things Thrifty and tried it out with good success on my kitchen cabinets.

A couple days after I got this dresser, I found an awesome spray paint deal - cans were only $1. That pretty much picked my color for me and it was time to get to work.

First step was giving it a dusting and removing the drawers and hardware. Next up, I spray painted it with primer. The change was already amazing.

After spray painting it green I was already loving it. One thing to keep in mind when spray painting something this detailed is to be sure to spray paint from all angles, otherwise the underside of the curves and carving will not get the necessary color.


I gave the paint a couple days to dry hard (only because I was too busy to do it the next day), and I started glazing. For the drawers I used a smaller artist brush so that I could get into all the crevices. On the big, flat areas I used a much bigger brush of course.

I split it up into sections because it took a while to cover all the areas and to wipe it off. Again, you just wipe it with a damp, clean cloth. I rinsed mine a bunch so that I didn't have to go through a billion rags.

On the above picture, you can see the bottom portion is unglazed, the semi circle at the top has the glazed mostly wiped off and the rest of the top has the glaze painted on. The glaze makes it look black and can be a bit concerning but it wipes off easy as long as you have a clean, damp, rag.

Because this piece will not get tons of contact on the painted parts (like my cabinets will) I did NOT use a polycrylic - I just chose not to and so far I haven't had any problems.

I love the finished piece and the extra cabinet space was REALLY needed. Now I am on the lookout for more furniture to glaze! What do you think?