Giving New Life to an Antique Dresser

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My love of thrift shopping began when I was a young single mother on a very slim budget. The department store prices were outrageous, and I was fortunate to walk through the doors of Goodwill. I soon learned the store offered everything from housewares to clothing, which covered all of my needs. It was perfect for my family!

This is also when my interest for upcycled furniture began. I fell in love with giving old, run down furniture a new life. It’s easy to turn an old treasure into a modern-day accent piece for your home.

I never know what I will find, but when shopping for furniture I usually look for something with character. And I have learned that almost anything can be repaired, repurposed and given new life!

I found this dresser at our local Goodwill store and just fell in love. It has some broken hardware pieces, but with a little imagination along with an appreciation for its quality and beautiful curves, this would become a stylish, practical addition to my living room. This piece has great character!

 

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It was unfortunate that the two upper drawers were too damaged inside to repair, which is why I decided to turn it into a TV/Entertainment stand.

Before beginning always clean your piece of furniture. You want the paint to be able to adhere to the wood.

  1. You don’t always have to use a primer when you plan on distressing a piece. I’m only lightly distressing so I did primer this piece first. This is important–wait at least a few hour for the paint to dry.

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  1. Paint your base color that you would like to use. I went with a cream and taupe two tone color for this piece. While this was drying I moved on to the drawers.

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  1. Take off all the hardware on the drawers. It’s not always necessary to paint the inside of the drawers but as you can see these looked a little rough so I went ahead and painted them.

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I happened to have a curtains that I had purchased at Goodwill sometime back. They matched so nicely I thought that instead of painting the bottom of the drawer I would use these as an alternative. So after the paint dried I cut and added the curtain as a liner on the drawer bottom. I really like the way that turned out.

 

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4.  Time for lightly distressing. I used a hand sander mostly on the edges.

 

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  1. Top coat everything. I always put top coat on my pieces. It saves the paint from chipping and staining. It is very important to use this–especially on a piece that is going to have heavier objects or be overly used. There are many clear coats to choose from, but the one I’ve always had the best outcome with is water-based polycrylic by Minwax.

 

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  1. I made boards to put in the top two drawer areas for the DVR and cable box. I used a piece of board from an old drawer that I was going to discard and cut off the sizes that I needed. I was happy to see that it was enough to cover both sides. I then covered them with matching fabric.

 

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7.  In order for this to be an efficient TV/Entertainment stand you must cut a hole in the back of the
piece large enough to fit cords for any type of equipment that will require electricity.

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Final Step:

Now it’s time to put everything back together. Here are some pictures of the final product!

 

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Happy painting–I look forward to sharing another how to project with you!

 

Amy

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