Spring Green Dresser

I'd had my eye on this dresser at The Salvation Army for a few weeks, but the price tag was a bit pricey.

When I dropped by a week later, I had a special surprise!

After sanding, I primed it with Kilz spray.  This is great stuff!

Kilz leaves a bumpy surface, but a super light sanding with 220 grit or so smoothes it right out!

I've been wanting to do a green piece, so when I found this green misint at Lowes, I was feeling pretty lucky!

I was dying to use my spray gun.  It was barely 40 degrees out, but it felt so much warmer because the sun was shining!  The man at Sherwin-Williams told me it needs to be at least 50 degrees to spray, but I was willing to take my chances!  I'd had it with my brush and roller!

So, um...anyways...this is what may happen to paint when spray gun temperature recommendations are not followed.  :)

Paint warts, I think, is what I shall call them! :)

It was actually not a big deal because the bubbles (and there really weren't that many of them) were in places that looked just fine getting sanded down as part of the distressing.  Unless the paint falls off next week, I'm going to say the spraying was totally worth it!

I used my mouse sander and heavily distressed all the edges.

Next I mixed up and applied white glaze with a cloth.

 

I also used my sponge brush and dry brushed on a little extra of the glaze mixture, just to add heavier glazing here and there.

Two coats of Minwax Wipe-On Poly was used to finish off the lower part of the dresser.

I decided to give the top of the dresser a nice whitewash.  It had already been stripped by the previous owner, so all I had to do for prep work was sand with 220 and 320 grit.

I used a water/paint/glaze mixture.  I didn't measure, but it was approximately 60/40  water/paint with a little glaze mixed in.  I added the glaze to the mix to allow more time to work the mixture into the wood and blend with each area I covered. 

 I brushed a very thin layer of the mixture into the wood with a two inch sponge brush.  It worked great!

It looks quite blotchy and uneven before it dries because the wood is still absorbing the mixture, but chances are it will even out more as it dries.

The next morning I applied wax using cheesecloth. 

Cheesecloth works really well and makes it easier to lay down a thin even coat.

Next I used a buffing pad to blend out the the wax.  It looked pretty, but the buffer leaves scratches in the wax.  A while back, Christa over at Stories of a House had recommended using Meguiar's Ultimate Compound to buff out scratch marks. 

That's right, it's a car product, but it works!

I sanded, primed and sprayed the original pulls a hammered brown.  Then, I mixed up some white paint and a pinch of glaze. Using a little paint brush, I covered the pulls with the white mixture and wiped it off lightly with a damp cloth.  Here are the stages of the pulls~

 I gave the pulls a protective covering with this~

I decided not to paint and line the drawers on this dresser because the inside of the drawers were in pristine condition, and most importantly, there were NINE drawers!  That would have taken me forever!!!  :)

Now for the fun part.  Here's what the dresser looked like when it lived at the thrift store~

....and now~

 The whitewashed top shows and highlights the woodgrain but hides little imperfections...

Spring is just around the corner!!!  :)