Nursery Dresser Makeover - A Happy Yellow for a Boy OR Girl

Pat Rios
by Pat Rios
9 Materials
As much as I love painting furniture in bright colors, I know yellow is not for everyone. This is why I love when my customers go bold like this couple did. They were half way into the pregnancy but decided to find out their baby's gender only after birth. The nursery had to be ready though, so they decided the dresser/changing table should colorful and festive.
This is how this pine dresser looked before.
They've had this dresser for years, but thought it was too blah for their coming baby's nursery.


This is how I refinished it:
First step was stripping and sanding the top.
Next I applied 2 coats of Minwax Provincial Stain.


24 hours later I sealed the top with 3 coats Minwax polyurethane spray, satin.
Once the top was ready and dry, I covered it with paper to protect it from overspray while I worked on the bottom and drawers. Then I sprayed two coats of Rustoleum Primer spray, gray.
My customer also asked me to make something fun about the knobs because the previous ones were "grownup" stuff. I happened to have some wood knobs from another project so I painted each of the 11 knobs in different pastel colors. I just mixed some white paint to the several leftover colors I had in stock. That part didn't cost me one cent.
I used my paint sprayer to apply 2 coats of yellow paint (Benjamin Moore Venetian Yellow).
To tone down the yellow and give the piece a special touch, I finished it with some dark brown glaze. I mixed Valspar clear glaze with some black and brown paint I had left.
I applied the glaze using a chip brush, working a small area at a time.
Then I wiped off the glaze using baby wipes until I achieved the look I wanted.
And this was the final result! I call it the happy dresser. I love the color combination and I'm sure they will make it look magic with the rest of their nursery decoration.
My favorite part. The different pastel colors over the yellow.
A close up on the glazed areas.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Feel free to ask me any questions.


Thanks for reading!


Patricia @thewoodspa
Pat Rios
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  • Beverly Beverly on Jan 05, 2019

    Did they have a boy or girl?????

  • Sandra M Sandra M on Jan 06, 2019

    This is really beautiful but I'm curious as to why there was a need for the grey primer. Is there a reason it was grey or is it just what you had on hand?

    You did a lovely job!

  • Brenda Ld Brenda Ld on Mar 24, 2019

    What happened to the two holes left by the removal of the handles from the large bottom drawers? and was another hole made for the knobs that replaced them?.

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