Shabby Yellow Dresser

This old dresser came from an estate sale. Oh yes, it looks sweet... but this dresser kicked my butt!  I lost count how many hours it took me just to get this baby ready to prime, but seriously, it had to be around 7 hours or so.... I'm not kidding!

Since it was so old, I wanted to test it for lead before I sanded.  Home Depot or Lowes (can't remember which) carried these lead tests.  They cost around $20, but there are eight tests in each one.

              Our scientist in the family, Zach, was a great assistant. 

The test came out negative, so it was good to go!

I was in trouble as soon as I started sanding.  The paint just gummed up under my sander and wouldn't come off, so I knew I was going to need to get out the stripper. 

I started out with the Citri Strip that worked great on the coffee table in the previous post.

Some of the paint came off, but now I had a gooey gummy mess, that I couldn't get off.  It was like someone had stuck a million pieces of chewed gum all over the dresser.  I fired over a 911 email to Cassie at Primitive and Proper.  This girl knows everything about furniture refinishing!  She told me I was probably going to need to whip out the big time stripper to finish off this job, and she recommended Formby's.

Most of the remaining paint came of with Fromby's and mineral spirits before I finally gave up.  Still this dresser will always have a little bit of it's original white paint, and that's perfectly ok with me!

Did I mention it took me 7 hours just to get to this point???  :)

There were a few places that needed repaired~

Not a problem.  This stuff works great for these kinds of repairs~

After applying the Quick Wood epoxy, I allowed it to dry for a couple of hours and then sanded it down.

The sun was shining, and it wasn't super cold, so I drug the dresser outside and sprayed on a fast coat of Kilz.  (I thought I deserved a quick spray primer on this project instead taking the time to roll it on! :)

I thought about painting the dresser white, but after the prep ordeal, I couldn't bear for it to be just an ordinary white. 

I pulled out some yellow paint I already had and mixed in some white and another greenish yellow oops sample I found that day to make the perfect yellow.

This dresser needed to be shabby, so I distressed the heck out of it!

After that, I brushed Minwax Dark Walnut Stain all over and wiped it off with paper towels.  I gave it another good sanding after that.

It was finished off with a coat of finishing wax, applied with cheesecloth,

The orginal pulls were already the perfect color, so I left them as they were.  One was missing, so I had to paint a couple wooden pulls to match the dresser.

I painted the insides of the drawers and lined them in coordinating paper from Hobby Lobby.

Before shot~

Here it is, all yellowed up!

Simple wooden knobs were an easy and perfect fix for the missing original pull~

                   The original pulls are so adorable!

                                  .Go ahead...peek inside the drawers~

                          It's even got wooden wheels!

I REALLY want to keep this one!  It matches just perfectly with our playroom!!!  We'll see....  :)