BeTeal My Heart...antique Dresser Makover.
5 Materials
$50
5 Days
Medium
Scrolling thru the classifieds is a daily occurrence for me. Once in a while I run across a piece that is really cheap or free but that usually means LOTS of work. The ad just said old dresser $20 and I thought to myself “here I go again” and seen my husband cringe because he knew it probably meant a wasted $20. When I picked it up my husband kept telling me that I was in for a lot of work and secretly I knew that, but I love old things and a challenge. It is a circa 1910 dresser with a harp mirror and I hate to paint old pieces but a client immediately jumped on it and requested a teal color. I suggested staining the top, drawers and mirror. She was Ok with it. I also showed her some beautiful handles I had that I thought would go great with the piece. It turned out beautiful and the color teal I chose just makes me smile!
Here it is. It’s looks ok in the pick but I had to rebuild the drawers and the harp. I also had to replace the top.
This is a break in the harp. I used my nail gun and wood glue to put it back together. I also had to ad a piece that was missing on the edge.
The drawers had cracks and the bottoms were also cracked and broken. I used 1/4 inch plywood to remake the bottoms of the drawers and used stainable wood filler on the drawers and fronts to fix the cracks. I sanded the drawers with 120 grit. I stained the fronts, insides and complete outsides of the drawers.
The top was not saveable. I actually had an old kitchen table that I had used the legs for another project. I cut one half of the top to size and it worked perfect. The only problem was the beveled edge made it a little short for the harp frame so I had to cut a very small piece of each end of the harp to make it fit.
This is one of the front legs. As you can see it was missing the whole back side. The leg was not just screwed on it was one piece that went all the way to the top, so I had to figure out how to fix it. I had a similar leg in my scrap pile and I chipped the round part off of it and attached with 1inch nails and filled in with wood filler. It worked perfect.
Here is the piece I used to fix the leg.
Here it is all fixed! You can’t even tell it was broke!
Paint is done and top is stained. Harp is all attached.
The mirror frame was stained but the mirror was not in the best of shape but it was 108 years old, and Resilvering mirrors is best left to the professionals. It requires a lot of dangerous chemicals. I felt leaving it just added characater to the piece.
I used miniwax espresso stain. I also did a light white wash over the paint to pick up the handles.
Love these handles!
It’s all finished. I used chalk paint that I make myself, I like to make it because I have a lot more color choices. I buy colorsmart flat paint at Walmart and mix 1cup of paint 1/3 cup Plaster-of Paris and 1/4 cup water, mix it an old blender. I also use Purdy brand brushes, I absolutely love them. I sealed with wipe on poly and after it dried for a few days waxed the whole thing. I like using cloth pads to apply wax it makes it so easy. My client was beyond happy and so was I.
here is my Facebook page www.facebook.com/memawslovelyglass
Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Comments
Join the conversation
3 comments
-
You did a phenomenal job, it is just gorgeous!
-
I love this! Great color scheme!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?