See how a less than perfect antique dresser is transformed into a unique dining room buffet.
CREATE | Published July 17, 2016
So.....It's been awhile. You may remember that I mentioned awhile back that I was going to be participating in a market to sell my handcrafted decor. Doing one market turned into doing two and my days became consumed with working on furniture and decorative items to sell. I realized that there was no way to continue creating, photographing what I was doing, and writing well-planned posts in addition to going to work everyday so I focused my energy where I needed to at the time.
Well, both markets are over and done with now. I'm really excited to share many of the projects I worked on leading up to this event and get back to a regular posting schedule!
Tomorrow I plan on sharing some pictures of how things were set up for my sales, as well as tips for selling just about anything at a market, antique booth, or even a yard sale. But for today, I wanted to jump right back into DIY showing one of my favorite furniture transformations to you.
Today's furniture makeover was a dream to work on. It was actually the first time I've ever bought a piece of furniture without seeing it in person (I saw it on a local business's Facebook page) and it was the first large piece of furniture I've done. Because I rarely have anywhere to sell what I paint anywhere other than online, I've never bought something bigger than a coffee table, chair, or small desk. The first sale I participated in was actually at my house and that allowed me to sell things that were bigger than I've ever worked on before.
An inexpensive way to get a custom piece of furniture is to buy something that needs a little extra fixing up. This antique dresser was missing a drawer on top which made it a much more affordable purchase than if it had all the pieces. Buying a fixer upper does mean you'll have to find a way to fix the problems that the furniture has, but what you end up with is completely unique.
In this case, the dresser has been repurposed as a dining room buffet or sideboard. Something like this could also be used in the entryway, (I picture the day's mail being quickly stowed away in those baskets as a visitor pulls in the driveway!) or as a bathroom vanity or kitchen island. And if nothing else, it would still make a perfect place to store you clothes and accessories in the bedroom!
The dresser was in pretty good condition, but had a few stains and damage so I didn't feel bad about painting it. I'm always in favor of keeping a bit of natural wood to contrast with the painted finish, so I decided to just paint the bottom.
The wood top was stripped with Citri-Strip applied with a paint brush and scraped away with a plastic putty knife. I'm not a fan of stripping wood but this product works pretty well and doesn't smell bad which is definitely a plus. After stripping off most of the finish, I went over the dresser top with some fine grit sandpaper to smooth the wood.
Rather than using stain or polyurethane to go over the wood, I used three coats of Miss Mustard Seed's hemp oil to get this amazing finish.
The bottom of the dresser was done with two coats of Lamp White Fusion Mineral paint. (This is a white paint with really soft hints of gray.....but it is showing up as an almost blue in some of these pictures.) Since I was leaving the two spaces open where the small drawers used to be, the space inside the dresser needed painted as well.
Then I painted the details with Casement White, but the shades are so close together that you really can't see much of a difference in the pictures.
I also painted the mirror frame with Casement White, but chose to keep the two pieces separate. It seems that dressers are easier to sell without their mirrors attached. If mirrors weren't so hard to photograph, I'd be showing it here. But it really turned out lovely. Sections of the detailed scroll work are missing, but I embraced that and made the mirror look very old and distressed. It didn't sell, so if you think you might be interested send me an email and we can discuss how best to get it to you in one piece!
The baskets pictured here were ones that I had at the house, but before I sold the dresser I switched them out for two hyacinth baskets from the Container Store. They have flat sides rather than angled ones and fit perfectly into the space inside the dresser.
You can see them here in the picture I took during the sale. (You can also better see the contrast between the gray dresser and white details in this image.)
Old hardware is often very ornate and unique. When it is in good condition, I prefer to leave them with the piece. All these pulls needed was a little cleaning up and they were good to put back on the drawers.
I am so happy that this dresser sold at my sale because I had no idea where it was going to live in my house if it didn't. (In front of the living room fireplace where it resided for over a month wasn't it!) And best of all, it went home with someone who really loved it. It is always the best feeling to sell something you've created to someone that will appreciate it.
Even though I chose to show this dresser being used as a buffet, I'd love to know how you'd use a converted dresser in your own home. Share with me in the comments below, post this to your own Facebook page, or send me an email. Thank you so much for stopping by today!
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An updated antique booster chair
A yard sale chair makeover
Fixing and updating a broken roll top desk
Grandma's antique dining table gets an update
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