When I found this little dresser on Craigslist for only $25.00 it had to come home with me. It definitely needed some love and care but I could see a diamond in the rough. A great DIY project.
I loved its curved legs and small drawers though it was in bad shape altogether. It appeared that it had been dropped from a truck or something and then left outside for awhile.
The piece had a lot of problems. For starters, the top was broken in half. The legs were partly broken needing repair and of course, it needed a paint job and drawer pulls.
Now it took me a bit just to remove the top from the body without breaking it more. The top was glued to the bottom piece instead of having brackets, as it should've had, so it took some time. My arms are still sore just thinking about it.
Now they say it always gets uglier before it gets pretty. And I have to admit that in the middle of me working on this piece, I just wanted to throw the whole thing in the trash. And that was just removing the top. I knew I will have to work hard to make it look good.
And after working hard and sweating a bit, ok sweating a lot, the top came off. I then cleaned the top good by removing the old glue and all the chipped wood.
After removing the top and seeing how broken it was I was still hoping I could salvage it because it had so much charm. So I decided to glue it back together. I was also prepared to replace the top if the glue did not work. So I gave it a shot first. You never know until you try, right?.
I glued the piece and used two bar clamps to keep it together and then let it dry. I had to wait a few days for the glue to dry and then sand the top to see if it was salvageable. I used this glue for the top. I also glued the sides that were coming apart.
In the meantime, I sanded the body of the dresser and used wood filler and glue where it was needed to cover its holes and cracks. And it had many. Do you think someone would create a wood putty for my imperfections?.... ha..ha..ha...if only.
After all the wood putty and glue were dry, I sanded the piece again to smooth it all.
There was a turquoise color under the original white color when I sanded it down and though pretty color, it did not work for me.
The wooden top seemed to work after I glued it....YAY!! Happy Dance Here!! I sanded the top and it looked rustic but beautiful. I used this oil on it and it looked brand new, well, sort of. It still had a few cracks here and there but I was very pleased with the result and that gave me more stamina to continue on the rest of the piece.
I painted the piece with a chalk blue gray color that I purchased at Target. Target does not carry this paint anymore but this blue one by Rustoleum is pretty similar.
I forgot to take a picture of the piece before I glazed it..... this picture has a dark glaze on it already. The glaze works the same as if using a dark wax, just add a little and then while off with a rag. The glaze or wax gives the color another dimension, a darker and richer color. So if you don’t have a glaze, use dark wax.
But before I glazed the piece, I distressed it with a sanding block only in some corners and then I dry brushed it here and there with white paint. I dipped the brush on some white paint I had and dabbed it on a paper towel until almost all the paint was dry. I then brushed the piece here and there to create more interest to the piece.
Then I glazed the piece. If too much glaze was put on, in other words, it looked too dark, I just used a wet rag and removed the glaze. Now it was time to put the wooden top back on. I used these brackets on the piece. First, I figure out where the bracket placements needed to be and marked the spots with a pencil so that I could pre-drill a hole before putting in the screws. (Pre-drilling is very important because the wood can crack on you if you don’t)
I pre-drilled the bottom and top piece and installed the brackets using screws as shown in the picture.
Now for the drawer pulls.
I love french furniture so I knew I wanted to use a drawer pull with a French look. I had these drawer pulls on hand and thought they would work perfectly on this piece. You can always add a more modern drawer pull, of course, and it would work too.
I painted my drawer pulls with a muted gold color to fit with the French look I was looking for.
If you like the french look, here are some beautiful drawer pulls online. And these are pretty too. Just note that when you purchase the drawer pulls you need to measure the distance between the drawer holes in order to purchase the correct ones. Measure from center to center of each hole.
Now here is the piece all completed.
And here it is in my kitchen nook looking beautifully French.
Don't let a broken piece of furniture stop you from creating a beautiful piece to love for many years. I always think that ugly pieces are just diamonds in the rough, don’t you?
Here's another look of what it looked like before and the new transformation.
By giving an old broken furniture a little love, you can make it beautiful again and enjoy it for many years to come.
Now go and give some love to those pieces that are waiting for you in your home or garage. And if you ever find that human wood putty I was talking about above, please let me know...ha..ha..ha.
Let's make things beautiful all around us, shall we?
Alicia
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