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OMG HI! 👋🏻
Sooo it’s officially been a month since I’ve posted. Lemme be real with you. I have been literally consumed by the end of summer classes & wedding planning. More so by the wedding plans, because when you opt to go more DIY rather than spend a fortune, it takes A LOT of time. It will ultimately be worth it, but all those little details that go into a wedding.. holy shit. I greatly underestimated this process.
The good news about all this complaining I’m doing is that I’m going to have a ton of new stuff to show you guys – & hopefully you’ll benefit when it comes to planning your OWN weddings! I’ve got 22 days to go until mine! 😍 (If you’re interested in getting some wedding tips straight outta my own personal arsenal, follow dat link.)
Alright, enough with the excuses. I wanted to fit in at least one DIY post before fall semester starts & I go back into “mental breakdown” mode. Here’s the newest home improvement project we’ve undertaken.. a small one in theory, but was such a great result that it really packed a punch in our bedroom:
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I know I’ve told y’all about how my fiancé Ryan & I have done a complete refresh & overhaul of the house throughout the pandemic. This included a complete redo of our lower level, & moving into the master bedroom down there. (To see the headboard we built for our new bed, click here, & to see the closet renovation we conquered click here!)
One of the final touches to the bedroom that we had been exploring for awhile was a second dresser. We were sharing one for TOO long – we both needed one of our own. The problem was that we couldn’t find one that fit what we were looking for & in the finish we wanted.
One day, upon arriving at Ryan’s dad’s house for a visit, we saw the dresser pictured above out by the road. His dad was parting ways with it because new furniture had been purchased & there was no place to put it. He told us it had been his grandfather’s, & both Ryan & I quickly asked if we could take it. Something about it being in the family for such a long time & it’s unique features – we HAD to have it. Ryan’s dad was happy to give it to us, & we happily transported it back to our house.
We wanted to completely update the dresser & paint it, because the cherry finish on it wasn’t going to fit our color scheme. The other dresser we had was white with light teal knobs on it, & most of the other bedroom furniture was gray, white & light blue.
In other posts, I’ve gone on & on about how much I love Rustoleum Milk Paint. I paint like everything I own with it. It covers all imperfections in really any piece of furniture, & it looks amazing on wood because the regular grain pattern shows through just a tiny bit.
Here’s some other things I’ve painted with this awesome stuff:
I love this paint, just in case I didn’t make that crystal clear. So, we picked up another jug of milk paint & began the process of coating our new dresser in it!
Before you start painting whatever piece of furniture you’ve chosen – completely clean all surfaces & crevices. This way, no dirt, dust or dog hair gets trapped in the paint as it dries. I use Spray Nine most of the time because I know it works well on most material & disinfects everything really well.
After it was clean & dry, all of the little brass pieces were removed & placed to the side. Then, Ryan sanded down the entire surface of the dresser & it’s drawers, completely removing the cherry finish.
Ryan spent a few hours sanding the dresser down. I had to show you what a difference it made with the before & after reference photo above. I was SO surprised that the cherry color had been completely removed, & that this weathered oak color was left behind. I almost left it this way because I actually like how it turned out!
I then took the drawers completely out of the dresser & painted them first. I didn’t initially plan on doing the inside of the drawers, but inevitably decided to go for it.
I initially began to paint the brass pieces with a light teal color, in efforts to fully match the other dresser.. but after seeing how it came out, I wasn’t thrilled. It was TOO teal, if that’s even a thing. After Ryan used a light coating of priming spray paint on the second brass piece, I was actually wowed by the color & how it looked against the white, & decided instead to spray paint all the hardware in the same shade.
FINALLY, we set to painting the dresser itself. After a total of two coats, we put the drawers back in & screwed the hardware back on.
& HOLY SHIT.
What a damn TRANSFORMATION!
IS THAT NOT THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DRESSER YOU’VE EVER HAD THE PLEASURE OF STORING YOUR UNDERWEAR IN?!
All it took was some milk paint, a roller, & two days between sanding & painting – & this little bit of easy work made a HUGE difference.
Even if you can spring for a new piece of furniture, you can make small upgrades like we did & transform your entire room! It cost us $20, & I love this more than any dresser I would’ve bought at any store.
Try it out for yourself, & tag me in your final results!
Love y’all, stay sassy! 💋
