Nursery Redo Series #3 Painted Dresser

We found a Craigslist dresser for Henry's nursery. It did well, but I was ready for something new. My mom and dad had this beauty in their basement, and I took them up on the offer to use it for this baby. It is old but is constructed pretty well. The top had many stains, so I thought I would paint it. I'd painted a dresser before, so I knew I could do it. This time I opted for one color instead of the paint chip effect I did with the one in our bedroom. The first task was selecting the color. I went to our local paint store and took the fabric sample I've been using as well as the wall color of the room (light green) with me. I didn't want to put my poor family through repainting the walls again (We painted them for Henry's nursery, and then I just had them paint Henry's big boy room.). I crowd sourced some ideas on Facebook and ended up going with a dark turquoise.

Here are a couple before shots of the dresser:

I don't mind the original hardware and wanted to keep the project low-budget, so I took off the handles and soaked it in some Dawn dish detergent + vinegar + hot water. It took off some of the grime. I just painted over the locks.

I used the same Zinsser primer I used with the other dresser. It had a strange layer of goop on top from sitting for a while, but I skimmed it off, and it seemed to be ok. I painted with a small foam roller and a brush for the tricky areas.

 

 

All primed!

 One little trick I tried this time to avoid the stick of newspaper was to use some coaster under the legs. It worked like a charm!

 There's the paint!

 

This is what it looked like after one coat of paint.

(The final piece finished and put back together at about 9:30 pm)

I ended up doing three coats of paint. With that dark of color, I felt I needed that coverage to get the white of the primer hidden.

This was definitely an all day project. I didn't wait the recommended 4 hours between coats of paint because I'm just too impatient. I probably waiting about 2 hours between coats. I did this with the other dresser, too, and it's held up fine. :)

Next up in the nursery is new window coverings and something new for the walls. I'm not sure what either will be yet, so you'll have to wait and see!