March 25, 2013

Blue Nursery Dresser

I have this friend. We grew up together as fake cousins. Our parents were best friends and so we called them Auntie and Uncle, therefore making us fake cousins :)

When the college years came around she went off to college and I stayed home and married/had babies immediately. So we lost touch for a bit until recently. She came back, married and moved into a house 2 doors down from my parent in-law's! And is now expecting a little one :) I couldn't be more excited about this and so when her and her husband asked me to paint a dresser for the nursery I was thrilled!


They found this dresser on Craigslist and boy is it a good find. Very solidly built with great working drawers, it's going to last this kid's lifetime and then some. They chose the color themselves to go along with their gender neutral nursery. I know that is a blue dresser, but it's the perfect blue. Put next to some of Lainey's pink things and it's the prettiest blue you've ever seen, put next to some sports paraphernalia and this dresser is all boy :) 

The color is called Lazy Sunday by Benjamin Moore. I had it color matched at Home Depot in some Behr semi-gloss. I took pictures of the whole painting process for you to show how I paint a piece with latex paint.

This is what I started with.


We knew we only wanted one hole for a knob instead of two for a pull so I filled in the hole closest to the middle of the drawer on each side. Sometimes I fill in both holes and drill a new hole right in the middle of the two but in this case this placement was going to look best which worked out wonderfully for me! ;) After filling all of the holes and sanding I filled them again to be safe and then sanded the whole dresser with my hand sander.



Here's the sander I own/use. I usually just use whatever sandpaper I have on hand, a medium grit is good.



 Then I take a small piece of sandpaper and go over all of the small and curvy places my hand sander couldn't do on the drawers and dresser body.



 After that's done I clean the whole thing off with a wet rag, if there's any film left I rinse the rag off and do it again until it's clean.


Note: I only sanded to knock down a bit of the shiny finish on the dresser, I didn't try to sand it down to bare wood or anything.

Next I start priming. First I use a Purdy XL Cub paint brush to paint all of the small and curvy areas. A good paint brush will give you good results and less brush strokes!


After two coats of primer on the edges I roll out two coats everywhere else. I use a mini foam roller for this.



Then I move on to my paint. I start again with my paint brush and go over all of the edges and curvy areas. When it dries I give it a second coat. If it looks like it needs a third coat go for it, better safe than sorry.


Now just roll out a couple coats of paint and I'm done! 

Now I did run into an issue at the end, because it just wouldn't be me without some issues. The roller was leaving roller marks for some reason, I'm not sure why seeing as this is how I always do it. ??? But I just took some fine sand paper and went over the top to smooth it a bit and then rolled on another coat. I made sure to have plenty of paint on my roller and to use smooth even strokes and it looked much better after. That's what I get for telling people how perfect this project was going!! ;)






The knobs are from Hobby Lobby and I used smaller ones on the top drawers for some added interest.


Maybe this summer when the nursery is finished I can get a quick pic of it all to share with you. I Can't wait for your arrival baby!! Your fake aunt loves you!


17 comments:

  1. I had a fake cousin growing up...we've not spoken in years now but it was fun to be fake cousins way back then!

    I love the dresser :) Thanks for sharing!

    xoxoxoxo
    Jessica

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love it, love it, love it!!!! AND I love that you made it for my fake niece :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is the same as Ali's dresser, just bigger!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know!! Amy emailed me the posting of it asking if it looked like a quality dresser and I immediately thought of Ali's and told her GET IT!! :)

      Delete
  4. I had a fake cousin too. So much fun! I love this dresser. The color is amazing. You should join my new linky party {1 party, 5 blogs!}
    http://www.somuchbetterwithage.com/2013/03/give-me-goods-party-1.html
    Have a great week!
    Jamie @ somuchbetterwithage.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. WOW, That turned out beautiful! I only grew up with fake cousins too, because we didn't actually have any real ones :o)Thanks for linking up to Tasteful Tuesdays!love it! Really appreciate you stopping by my blog! I'm trying to keep in better touch with my linkers/readers... If you already follow me, please let me know I will find your blog on Bloglovin (I'm transferring my follows there)if you don't follow in any way, would you consider following via GFC or other method?
    www.nap-timecreations.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. I never have visions for things like this - that dresser looks fantastic!! That color is awesome - so perfect for a nursery. Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. what a great piece! it is so springy:)

    ReplyDelete
  8. It turned out beautiful!! I love the color! Pinned for inspiration. Julia @ www.juliakendrick.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great tutorial, and what a wonderful blue. With winter just dragging on and on, I'm craving color. Now I need to find something in my house I can paint this shade!

    If you haven't already done so, please come join my How-To Tuesday link party. It would be great to have you join!

    http://housewifehowtos.com/linkage/link-party-2/htt-link-party-15-and-features/

    ReplyDelete
  10. A beauty. You did a perfect job. Stunning color. Your fake cousin must be loving it!

    Blessings
    Sumaya

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very pretty dresser and funny about you and your fake cousin!! Too cute :)

    Stopping by via: Miss Mustard Seed's linky party
    Happy Easter!
    Smiles, Suz @ MaytagNMom
    My Project For This Week's Linky Parties

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a pretty fresh dresser! I love the color! Please share this on my linky party http://suburbsmama.blogspot.com/2013/03/sunday-linky-party-1.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for linking up :) Hope you have a great day.

      Delete