French Style Dresser in Grey and Blush

I’ve bought this dresser for my daughter’s room for only $35 on Facebook Marketplace and instantly I knew what I wanted to do with it to refinish. I wanted to paint in grey and blush colours to make it beautiful and feminine but not too girly.

The dresser was in good shape apart from a drawer runner that I had to fix which I’ve just had to screw back together. The dresser had been painted over of the original paint, so there was a minimum of 2 coats of oil-paint which is harder to remove, but I really wanted to strip down the top to refinish only with a dark stain to give a natural, more rustic feel to balance the curve shapes of the dresser.

The frame and drawer’s front I’ve decided to paint over, so there was no need to strip down to wood, but I had to remove the top layer of the front of the drawers in order to remove those flower painting, because if I painted over it would create some pattern and wouldn’t have a smooth finishing.

After I striped down the top, I’ve cleaned all surface and started painting. I decided to try out the Rust-Oleum Chalked paint as a change from Annie Sloan in order to compare both in quality, application and finishing.

For the frame I went with ‘Aged Grey’ and for the front drawers I’ve chosen ‘Blush Pink’. Both were applied 2 coats and the coverage was evenly and perfect. The paint is very easy to apply, dry fast and leaves very little brush strokes on the finishing surface. To seal and protect I’ve used clear wax.

On the top, as I said, I’ve stripped down to wood. I’ve used EZ Strip, and I think I might have applied 3 times to remove everything because the original paint from manufacture was painted in spray and was a oil-paint base, then I sand it down until was bare wood. I’ve cleaned with a dump cloth and let it dry thoroughly then I’ve applied 2 coats of Varathane Wood Stain in ‘special walnut’. The wood grain fo the wood and the rustic feel achieved was a perfect match for the painting on the frame and drawer’s front. It gave a balance between smoothness and visual roughness and gives some warmness to the furniture.

The original handles were kept, and I’ve only cleaned a bit, but decided to keep some of the old paint on it to create this vintage look. My daughter loved it and so do I.