Bored With Your Furniture? Give It a New Look With Fauxy Rollers!!!

13 Materials
$75
4 Hours
Easy

Giving new life to a tired old piece of thrift store furniture - creating this fabulous makeover for my guest room!

The before picture - tons of damage to repair

So I stumbled across this piece at a local thrift store and thought it would be prefect for my guest room! Just a matter of finding time to redo it....LOL And, as always around here first things first - removed drawers, hardware and took it out to the back alley for a good sanding and cleaning. Then it was time to repair legs and top. Glued the legs back together and then filed in all the "chunks" of missing wood with my AE Texture Medium - this poor little piece had seen it's better days.....:(

Drawer fronts with original hardware.

After all the repairs had been completed - it was time for a layer of XIM Bonding Primer. I'm a little "old school" with my painting and I prime everything. If there is going to be a failure - it is always in the first layer, so I won't waste my time without the insurance layer of primer!!!

Everything Primed with XIM Bonding Primer

I picked the Black Velvet by Debi's Design Diary DIY Paint - it's a deep charcoal grey color and would work well in the guest room. I painted the drawer fronts and the body of the dresser with the Black Velvet - two coats, allowing dry time in between. (I lightly sanded with 400 grit between coats).

Painted in Black Velvet by DIY Paints.

The next step was to create use my AE Texture Medium on the top of the dresser with the Diamonds roller pattern. I used my small Japanese trowel and applied thin layer of the Texture Medium (1/16" to 1/8" thick) and while the medium is wet you will roll the Diamonds roller through the wet material. When using a pattern that has a very distinctive design as the Diamond - make a mark on the roller and use the mark to line up the starting point of each roll so that the pattern will be in alignment. Once the Texture Medium is dry (which can take a couple of hours) you will need to sand of any of the "high peaks" created by the roller - I just use 220 to 150 girt sandpaper wrapped around a sanding block. Make sure to just sand off the highs and not loose your pattern. Clean off the surface with a damp rag and then you will be ready for some paint!

Modern Masters Metallic Silver Paint

I painted the top of the dresser with Modern Masters Silver Metallic Paint - apply two coats allowing dry time in between layers. Once the Silver was dry, I create a Black glaze using Proceed Colorant Black and Modern Masters Wall Glazing Cream - approximately 2.5 tbls of Black colorant to 1 cup of Modern Masters Glaze. Brush the glaze onto the surface with a "chip" brush and then remove and soften the glaze with Cheesecloth, this will age and add depth to the finish and enhance the detail of the Diamond Roller pattern. Allow to dry which can take hours!

Softening Glaze finish.

My next step was to make those drawer fronts stunning and I had to use my new favorite roller - Bird of Paradise!!! I lined up the drawers, taped them together and tried to get them as level as possible, so that I could roll them all together! I measured to find the center of the drawers and then created a guide line for my first roll down the middle of the drawers - this way I could follow that rolled out pattern to the right and left. I'm using the new Stamping style rollers - first thing you do is load paint onto the Sponge applicator. I like using a serving tray (it's flat, instead of a paint tray) I lined it with press-n-seal (because I don't like to wash) and then just brushed paint onto the surface - added a little water to thin it down and rolled the sponge through the diluted paint. Once the sponge is loaded, just load the pattern roller into the handle and roll it out on paper to test the print and make sure the pattern is completely loaded with paint before you start your project. Not pressure is needed and you can just roll the pattern onto any surface - easy and fun!

Bird of Paradise Stamping roller

I decided that I needed a little glaze added the the drawer fronts and body of the dresser - I wanted a little sparkle. So I created a Silver Metallic glaze with Mixol Silver and Modern Masters Wall Glazing Cream - about 1 tbls Mixol to 1/2 cup of Glaze. I brushed this onto the drawer fronts and then used the cheesecloth to wipe off the excess, leaving a soft glittery stria. I also applied the glaze over all areas of the dresser that were painted in the Black Velvet.

Applying Silver Glaze

Applying glaze to the drawers with a chip brush and then wiping off the excess with Cheesecloth.

Top drawer with glaze bottom without

Showing before and after of applying glaze to the drawers.

Diamonds roller used on top.
It's done!!!

You want to protect the dresser with a couple of layers of your favorite top coat. I'm using my Final Coat - 3 to 4 layers!!! I need to find some new hardware - didn't like the original - so time to go shopping! Make sure to check out my website at www.artisticpaintingstudio.com and my YouTube Channel and don't forget to subscribe please!!!

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Jennifer Weber Ferguson
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  • Kacie Kacie on Mar 09, 2017
    Do you still have the drawer pulls? If you do would you consider selling them? I have a very old buffet that has the same style of pulls but some of them have come apart and can't be fixed. I would love to be able to replace them with good ones of the same style.
  • Shelli Shelli on Nov 30, 2018

    Did u put pulls on? Can’t see them in the pic. It is soooooo pretty

  • Diane Schule Diane Schule on Dec 01, 2018

    What color did you use to paint the Birds of Paradise pattern? The same silver as the top? I see that you wiped it afterward with the thin silvery glaze, but the actual pattern looks cream-colored.


    It's lovely!

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  • Rebecca Platt Rebecca Platt on Jan 05, 2019

    I want to add that I checked out the stamping rolls. The ad mentions how they don't mess up your walls like wallpaper. Truth of the matter is, you wold have to sand a great deal to get the ridges smooth if you decided to paint over the wall. I know this is so because anytime you add a ridge with paint, like stripes, you leave a higher area, the ridge. This has to be sanded down and is a huge job. I would strictly use this method only on a piece of furniture I had to plan to redo in the future.

    • Jennifer Weber Ferguson Jennifer Weber Ferguson on Jan 11, 2019

      Yes, there is a possibility that a little of the pattern would shadow through - but that could also be a really cool effect! They are great on many surfaces - fabric, furniture, cabinetry, walls, clothing, etc :)

  • Annie Doherty Annie Doherty on Feb 20, 2019

    Stunning piece of work, thank you for sharing. I love that your dresser has a new lease off life.

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