Our apartment complex has a dumpster area that people put furniture down by. Most of the time it’s trash, but sometimes it’s just stuff they don’t want to move. I saw this dresser down there and really liked the shape of it. It was a little beat up (there was no saving the original finish) but it was solid, all wood dovetail drawers and definitely vintage. It had, as they say, Good Bones.
You can see some of the wear and paint and dings it had suffered.
I used a GORGEOUS Mediterranean blue color. I also took the old, dingy silvery pulls and refinished them with an antique gold. I used the same wax to give the wood work detail some accent color too.
It looks so good refinished! And yes, I know, some people hate painting old furniture. I get it if it’s beautiful and perfect already, but when it’s beat up, worn, and in the literal dumpster, this is a way to save a piece and give it a new life. No one would have wanted it the way it was but now it’s got years of use again.
Yeah if I could have saved the original finish, I would have. But sadly, it was beyond hope. Which is why I didn’t feel bad doing what I could to ensure it had a second life.
It turned out so great! The blue and gold really suit the style of the piece, too. It’s got a nautical vibe with the hardware style and the rope moulding.
I’m with you. Not all wood is beautiful. And everyone has different taste. If this had been some rare antique that would make the Keno brothers swoon on Antique Roadshow that would be a different thing altogether. The handyman who was helping us with a few projects a few years ago was quietly appalled that I was painting the outside of our front door - but it was not pretty wood and it had an insurmountable amount of yellowed varnish on it.
Our apartment has a free section where people put stuff that’s not garbage but that they just don’t want anymore either. We’ve gotten some good stuff from there!
Which paint is that?
I already knew I liked the color and over a year later, the paint has held up perfectly on my IKEA piece so why not!
