Monday, January 16, 2012

how to re-do a dresser

So my friend Jennifer asked me to write up a tutorial on how I refinish a piece of furniture. As I mentioned before, when we move to Florida we are changing all of our bedroom furniture around. Currently Tyler is using the Chest of Drawers from the guest bedroom set and since we will need that when we take over that set as our new bedroom furniture I have been on the look out for a new dresser for him. I found this piece on craigslist (of course) and seller even delivered it to my house! (Bonus!!) Instead of waiting until we move to Florida to do this piece I decided to tackle it this weekend in my spare time! I used Annie Sloan Chalk paint (I used Paris Gray) on this piece as well so I did not need to prime it and I also decided not to stain it. I will layout the steps I did do to distress this particular piece.


The dresser before

With true chalk paint you aren't suppose to have to stand or prime your furniture. I have discovered that it is more beneficial  to stand the surface of the piece to take the "finish/sealer" off.  My goal here was to take the "shine" off.

If I was not using chalk paint I would have sanding it down a bit further, trying to get past the original stain color and then I would have primed it.  (In case you are using a traditional latex paint to do your piece of furniture.)


I used a hand held rotary sander on the main part and then I went back and sanded with a sanding block after I took off the handles. 


This is after one coat of paint. You can paint it on how ever you are comfortable. I used both a sponge roller (I think it was called a trim roller) and a traditional paint brush (I use Purdy bushes).


I used two coats of paint to get an even color. After it has had time to dry (I typically wait until the next day) you can start distressing it.

To get a distressing/chipped paint look get some medium to heavy grit sand paper/or sanding block. I start with the corners and edges. Start lightly-but just start sanding the paint away.  You can do as much or as little as you want. It depends on the look you are trying to achieve.


Once you have sanded the edges and sides down to where you like them you can either stain your piece to add a little more to the look or just seal it. Like I said at the beginning, I did not stain this piece because I liked the chalky gray color. Adding stain will change the color of your piece slightly. Depending on the color stain you pick, it may change it a lot. (so just keep that in mind). If you want to know how to use stain to distress your piece, send me a message and write up the step for you.


After I sanded down the edges then I used a water based poly coat to seal and protect it. I chose the satin finish because I didn't want much of a shine on this piece.


On pinterest I once saw that someone painted an entire dresser with chalkboard paint and I thought that was a really cute idea. I also saw (on pinterest) someone once use chalkboard paint on rubbermaid tubes so they could label what was inside, another great idea. SO I decided to combine those two ideas and apply them to this dresser. I thought it would be cool to add a little chalkboard rectangle to each drawer so I could label what was inside.

The top drawer has a little more detail than the rest, it has a little molding on it to make three skinny rectangles. I thought it would be a good idea to use the middle rectangle size and location as my model/guide. I measure it and then measured each drawer. I wanted to make sure each chalkboard block was centered and the same size. (thanks to my wonderful hubby who helped with all the math and measuring!) I made a template, traced it on each drawer and then taped off each rectangle.


I then added newspaper to the outside edges (since I was using spray paint-chalk board paint). I didn't want it to get on anything or go anywhere other than the center rectangle box.


I took them outside and sprayed them three times over the course of an hour and a half.


The finished product! My newly repainted dresser for Tyler's room. 



Now if only my friend Nellie lived a little closer I could have her write on each rectangle and it would look much prettier!!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Oh Charlotte!


One week from tomorrow the packers come to pack up my house. I am still in denial about this! Charlotte is a place I have called home for 6.5 years. It's amazing how much I have changed and my life has changed since we moved here!

I moved to Charlotte two months after I graduated from college. I was engaged and ready to start my adult life. I started teaching kindergarten and slowly built up an awesome network of amazing friends! I got married, bought our first house, had a baby, stopped working, bought a different house and then had another baby. A lot of changes in almost 7 years!

As much as I will miss my home (which we bought 23 months ago) and this beautiful city, I will miss my friends the most! Our friends have turned into our family here. I love them all and will miss them dearly!!

I can't wait for visitors in Orlando!! I hear the weather is great down there!!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

A veryBates Christmas

We are so lucky to have Jason's parents and my parents in the same area! I will say it again... we had a great Christmas!! The boys were spoil loved. Carson really enjoyed the extra time he was able to spend with his grandparents and his Uncle Kyle.


Tyler and Grandpa






Lots of fun gifts!






Tyler with his new walker


Carson playing the piano at Dan and Debbie's

Learning to walk


The Bates family minus Cory's family

Cousins
Aunt Connie


Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A veryRenner Christmas...

I have a TON of pictures from the holidays, sorry!! I figured it would be best to split it up into two posts "Renner" and "Bates." We are VERY lucky to have two wonderful families who LOVE to spoil our children. We all had a great Christmas and I think everyone felt very loved!!

We are also very lucky that our parents live about 15 minutes from each other so it makes splitting our time "easier." By easier  I mean we are able to see both sides of the family in one trip but it also means that even though we spent a week visiting in Virginia we have very little down time or time to see all of our friends. We were able to spend a lot of quality time with our moms, dads, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, grandparents, and even some of our best friends! Overall I would say it was a pretty great trip and a WONDERFUL Christmas!!





Very excited that Santa brought him the car truck he had asked for!!


Poor Tyler was really sick on Christmas. We ended up taking him to Urgent Care once they opened. Luckily they opened at 10 on Christmas and we were able to get him some antibiotics to help get him some relief! He started showing signs of relief within a day and his fever finally broke!! Never a dull moment!!















I was hoping Tyler would be into opening his gifts more, but he was feeling so bad that he wasn't really interested in doing much at all. Poor guy!!


Elisha has been DYING to take Carson ice skating so we FINALLY went on the 26th. (she has been asking for 2 years!!) It's a good things I made her wait because she had to hold him up the whole time!! Lucky for her he only lasted 30 mins or so!!

My Uncle Randy playing with Tyler 


My Grandma and Tyler 


Four Generations of Renner's. Grandma, Dad, me, and the boys!