Chest of Drawers Layered Blended & Wallpapered

Picked and Poshed
by Picked and Poshed
6 Materials
$100
8 Hours
Medium

I found this chest in a thrift store and knew with some paint and maybe a pop of wallpaper behind the doors it could be fabulous.

I love the vintage seventies pieces. Their hardware is chunky, and usually the pieces are ornate and they paint up so nicely.

I did remove the brass plates behind the hardware as I felt they made the piece seem too heavy. Then I cleaned with Krud Kutter and dove right in.

I used my Bosch sander which is relatively inexpensive and it hooks right up to our shop vac and scuff sanded with some 120 grit sandpaper. Always clean first so you don’t push any dirt or grime into your piece.

I am not sanding to bare wood, just enough to give the piece some tooth and only where my sander can fit.

Now the necessary part is out of the way we can get to the fun part.

I cleaned the hardware and sprayed it with Rustoleum Flat Soft Iron and set it aside to dry.

Now I love to layer and blend colors.

I used all these DIY clay based paints. I painted a first coat of gray and thought I was going to keep it gray but then I felt inspired to add some other colors.

Specifically the colors I used were letter press gray, prairie gray, Gypsy green, bohemian blue and just a tiny bit of little black dress.


What I did was put a little of each of these colors on a paper plate and dabbed my brush in a little of each color and misted my piece with the water bottle and applied the paints. They flow well with the water and you keep brushing them along.

It’s not pretty but this is my paper plate with the colors.

I didn’t always use each color, but I did always use Bohemian Blue. I’m fond of blues.

Here is how it looked with one door painted with blending the colors.

Once I entirely painted the piece with this process I went back with my sander and some 220 grit and distressed it back allowing the gray to come through here and there. The wood shows in places as well. I love the aged look it has.

Once I used some wax to seal the piece entirely I went with this wallpaper I had on hand from a local store and measured the inside of the doors and cut the paper to fit and sprayed this 3M adhesive on it.

Lastly, I replaced the hardware.

I had a lot of fun with this one. I wasn’t confined to rules and just freely painted to get the look I liked.

I hope this inspires you to try this technique too.


I make lots of painting stories on Instagram if you want to follow along over there you can find me Instagram.com/Pickedandposhed


Stay safe and creative!

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  3 questions
  • Crw4444 Crw4444 on Aug 23, 2020

    Can you post a picture of the inside?

  • Karins Kottage Karins Kottage on Sep 06, 2020

    That turned out amazing! Love the wallpaper!

  • Ang51151371 Ang51151371 on Aug 20, 2021

    I have the same exact armoire. How did you sand that when it's like a hard plastic. Let alone keep the paint on?

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