Swedish Gustavian Makeover

by Clair Seyler - woodpaintcreate.com

3 Materials

$50

14 Hours

Medium

I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone for this project, as I am more of a "paints within the lines" kinda gal. I didn't have any glaze and am not a fan of dark wax, so I used many methods to achieve the final look, which was inspired by old Swedish Gustavian style painted furniture.

Top had odd stains, and not made of wood

But first I had to deal with the stained top of this nine drawer, Bassett built, vintage dresser. (Forgot to grab a before pic! Duh). I was disappointed to see it was the only part of the dresser that wasn't wood or at least wood veneer, so I grabbed some 1x4 and 1x5 pine planks to make my own wood top.

gustavian inspired dresser makeover, Planks were clued and screwed in to top

Planks were glued and used screws to attach

Once I had cut the planks to size, I removed the drawers and backing so I could reach in and secure the planks to the original top with screws (Drilling pilot holes first). Since lumber is never perfectly flat, I used a hand planer and orbital sander to smooth it out and stained it in Special Walnut.

I always ended up with brown when mixing paint or playdough as a kid, so I kept it simple using just two colors - Winter Gray in a homemade chalk paint, and Rustoleum's White Linen Chalked Paint.

After painting the base in Winter Gray, I began adding several layers of each color in different areas, wet and dry sanding in between, as well as dry brushing and making extra thick white chalk paint to build up the texture throughout.

I wanted the edges to show more of the Gray (with blue undertones), so I used dry and damp rags to wipe away some of the white from those areas.

I added Dentil trim just above the drawers

I also added the horizontal Dentil trim moulding, which was applied with some wood glue and my most awesome Ryobi nail gun. The pulls were painted with the same colors, using Gray as the base and white in the nooks and crannies.