Chalk Painted Dresser With a Twist

Sometimes you find a dresser with great bones, but the drawers may be a bit busted up. Read on to learn how I turned a beat up dresser with broken drawers into a dry bar, ON WHEELS!

I measured the width of these spare wine racks, and as luck would have it, they were a PERFECT fit.

I started by priming the wine rack and the parts dresser that were going to be painted.

I attached the wine rack to the sides of the dresser with 2 x 4’s cross pieces that were notched to hold the racks for the wine bottles.

To keep them secure to hold quite a few wine bottles, the cross boards were glued with wood glue and screwed from the outside panels into the 2 x 4’s.

A piece of molding was cut and nailed to the bottom to create a finished edge.

The inside was then sprayed a dark grey for contrast. 

This allows the wine bottles placed inside to be the focal point.

While the paint was drying on the interior of the dresser, I taped off the area and covered it. 

The top of the dresser and top row of drawers were sanded to remove the old finish and expose the wood grain.

Once the top and drawers were sanded, I painted the exterior a soft white chalk paint from the Rust-Oleum Chalked line of paint, called Chiffon Cream.

Since the top will be used as a serving area, staining the top makes it more durable. As a dry bar or serving piece, there will be drinks poured (and most certainly spilled) as well as food served.

My go to for table tops and pieces that will get a lot of wear is  Varathane Stain & Poly all in one by Rust-Oleum.

It comes in both water based or oil based. I find the water based is easier to work with, it is certainly easier to clean up!

On this piece, I used the oil based version on the drybar in Mission Oak.

The top row of drawers are perfect for holding a serving tray or 2, bar tools, napkins and all the essentials for hosting a gathering. The wheels make it easy to move around for extra serving space.

Let’s see that from another angle.

I thought the original drawer pulls were just perfect as they were. They went right back on the drawers once the drawers were fully cured.

Gorgeous! I love how it turned out.

Did you count how many wine bottles it would hold?

13 bottles per row time 3 rows, 39 bottles.

That’s quite a party waiting to be had!