As my son was going to move into his first apartment, I wanted to find him an old dresser at a garage sale. The older furniture were made better then our “modern”furniture and the cost is much less. I went to the garage sale that stated… dressers. I came home with two. One was a taller one for my son and this one. I didn’t need it but I knew I needed to do something with it. I had it for several months before I decided what I wanted to do. I was going to use Milk Paint but after reading about it, I decided against it. You had to add items and mix with the powder. What I did find was to use Chalk Paint. I have used black chalk board paint but didn’t know it came in colors and for furniture. Because I live in a small town I look at Amazon. I bought a Caribbean Sea Chalked Finish paint by Chalk County Paint. I also read about using a top coat of a wax. I planned on distressing it so I bought two finishing wax by Minwax. Once clear and one special dark paste. It recommended a professional wax brush as well and I wish I would have brought two.
After applying two coats of chalk paint, I used a palm electric sander and lightly sanded the edges. I have done this before on previous projects. I applied the dark wax on the places I sanded and once dried I applied the clear wax. I used a cotton rag to “buff” it. That make the shine come through, like you would expect to see on wax.
I had chosen to strip the top of the dresser to its inner beauty. There were some wear and tear that looked really nice but there were also rings from someone setting a cold or hot beverage on it. Please use a coaster!!
I used a dark stain I had on hand and applied just one coat and waited 24 hours for it to dry. I applied two coats of polyurethane to finished it off. Of course you have to lightly sand with a fine grit sand paper between coats.
I am sure there are people who would go about this differently but this is how I did my garage sale find. I am now on the hunt for a new project!!
Jill R Holland Designs 