Antique Dresser Makover With Hummingbird Design

Misty Gaines-Johnson
by Misty Gaines-Johnson
8 Materials
$10
5 Days
Advanced

It’s hot here in Arizona and it’s not the greatest time to work in the garage and definitely not a great idea to go junkin, but that is exactly what I am doing! I seen an ad on the local swap shop site for a free dresser, so off I went to pick it up. It was not in the best of shape but that is my speciality, taking junk and making it beautiful. When I got it home there was a big chunk missing from the top front, but the piece was there to fix it, thank goodness! It also looked odd sitting, like it needed legs or something. This dresser does have a stain shaded design and I have done a couple short videos to show how it is done, it is under my projects on Hometalk titled big ol’ sunflower table or you can see it and more of my work on my Facebook page. Www.facebook.com/memawslovelyglass

Here it is before. Someone had started to paint it black and I felt it looked odd sitting flush on the ground. It was solid wood and it was a well built piece of old furniture. I removed the decorative wood pieces on each drawer, I did this for the design I was putting on it.

This is showing the big piece missing from the front. I wood glued it back on and used wood filler to smooth it all out and fill in the cracks.

I added some bun feet. I had to use a small block of 2x4 to the back and then drilled holes for the feet to fit perfectly. I wood glued these in also. I waited 24hours for them to dry before turning over.

I used my heat gun to get all the paint out of the crevices.

All sanded and ready for design. The darker marks are wet from where I had wiped it off.

I decided to put a stain shaded hummingbird on the front. I was also going to stain areas and use copper metallic paint on the feet, top, and side areas, I also used a black glaze over the copper paint.

My hummingbird has been drawn on and I have started out lining with stain. Stain shading is a process of using just stain to create an image.

Side view, you can see where I stained and where the copper paint was used.

Bun feet, painted and glazed

Top painted and glazed. I had planned on staining the top but the area that had the flaw showed too bad.

Hummingbird all finished.

These are the only 3 things I used.

All finished. The Hummingbird and his Shadow, I also added the mirror and painted it to match. I hope you enjoyed this project, I absolutely love it and it is by far one of my favorite pieces.

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  • Sherry Sherry on Mar 11, 2019

    Beautiful work! I love the cabinet and the entire wall setting. Is there a pattern available for the hummingbird? Also, which product did you use for the mirror frame refinish? I have a gold framed mirror that I would love to refinish on a brushed chrome color.

  • Trina Davis Strong Trina Davis Strong on Mar 17, 2019

    How did you treat the area of the shadow? Was it just glazed or waxed? I wonder because I wouldn't have left it bare wood.

  • Monique Fritzsche Monique Fritzsche on Apr 09, 2019

    Where did you get the hummingbird pattern? Beautiful work.

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