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!!