Well Guys, I’m making some progress in the bedroom. Like I mentioned last week, I’m taking the bedroom makeover pretty slow right now, I want to make sure that I am living in the space and making the right decisions about it before committing to big purchases or making bad design choices. I am really happy with how things are coming and I am very happy with this new addition.

This dresser was a hand me down from my Aunt, it had seen better days and needed a bit of love. I got to town sanding it (after testing for lead of course) and over the courser of a few weeks I was able to make it pretty again. I love the simple lines of this piece, the details of the rails especially – in between the drawers they curve in slightly and have my heart. I’m pretty sure the dresser is made of maple and even has cedar lined drawers. I’m sure it was a nice piece of furniture it’s heyday.

I could’ve painted it white, but I thought this was my chance to add something kind of sweet and awesome to our room. I painted the dresser in the best shade of light pink/peach with slight grey undertones – Benjamin Moore’s Peach Cloud in the Satin Impervo. The Satin Impervo is an oil based paint. I would always recommend an oil based paint when painting furniture because it doesn’t dry as fast and levels out beautifully. Leveling out means that you don’t see brush strokes as prominently as if you were to use latex. It applies wonderfully – like butta – like, I kind of love painting with it just for fun. Of course it’s a bit more complicated to clean up, you need to use mineral spirits and make sure to dispose of the paint properly. To make things a bit easier, if I’m in the middle of a painting project and I have to take a break I’ll just toss my brush in a jar of mineral spirits which keeps it from drying out. Once I’m ready to paint again, I just have to quickly wipe the brush down with a paper towel when I’m ready to go. Anyway, in my opinion, furniture painting calls for oil based paint.

The obligatory before pic. Woof.

I’m still considering adding these legs to the dresser from prettypegs.com. The legs are broken on the back side of this dresser and they wobble a bit.

I’ve painted furniture a lot in my day. A long time ago when Jeff and I got our first place I painted a whole set of shabby old bedroom furniture white. We were just out of college and didn’t have any money. There was no Twin Cities Ikea back then, and I wanted to use a color to pull the bedroom together. I decided to paint all of the furniture. My folks’ neighbor just happens to be a pro painter – he is a wise old chain smoking sage wizard and guided me through my first furniture painting project. I still follow his lessons anytime I take on projects like this, and I thought I’d share with you guys.