Broke Down Dresser

Leesa Osborne
by Leesa Osborne
1 Material
$25
4 Days
Easy
Found this baby for $10 and scooped her up to make her beautiful again. She needed quite a bit of work but had no doubt I could do it.
at first glance she didn't look to be in that bad of shape. Then I noticed missing parts of the back of the dresser, drawers seem to slide just fine. Then realized the drawer bottoms were just pieced together and were falling apart. Big deep breath. Took her home anyway.
i went ahead and started stripping her sorry I didn't get photos of this step. I used citristrip with trash bags. It seemed like latex paint so it came off fairly easy. It had already been peeling.
i got most of the latex paint off not all of it and I used mineral spirits to help get the sticky icky residue off. Waited a few hours and began sanding. Once I got to the drawers I realized they were going to need glue to stay once piece. I started glueing all The seams so the drawers didn't fall apart. They were being held together with old contact paper.
I then measured the back of the dresser and realized this is going to need a new back. I love using old fencing that's been torn down and use on a lot of my broken pieces. Got my jigsaw out and cut them myself this time. My husband usually does this part but figured hey I can do this one even cut.
shes making progress and almost completely ready for painting. I had a gallon of paint mixed at Walmart in a beautiful blueish gray color called dark gray silk. I used color place ultra paint & primer in one. I then mixed my own chalk paint using a mason jar and a little calcium carbonate. Stained the top with java gel and gave her new hardware. I sanded the boards a little bit for the back and I used special walnut mini wax stain for the old fencing. She's a beauty.
Suggested materials:
  • Citristrip gel, sandpaper,mineral spirits, old fencing paint & primer   (Walmart lowes)
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  • Kathy Schrieber Kathy Schrieber on Aug 20, 2017

    You did a great job, beautiful, but why didn't you paint the back as well?

  • Kathy Kathy on Aug 31, 2017

    What is java gel?

  • Donna Donna on Sep 06, 2017

    How did you fix the drawers

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