distressed – Blessed4Ever

Craigslist Dresser Makeover

I love shopping Craigslist but I usually don’t buy most of the stuff that I want too. If the price isn’t too high, I tend to not want to drive all over to pick stuff up. I don’t have a truck or a trailer so most often, it takes me two trips to get things home in our SUV.

So when I came across the two pieces below for $25 and the location happening to be 1 mile from our home, I couldn’t pass it up. I emailed the guy immediately and picked up the pieces not long after. Both pieces for $25 bucks! Actually, the dresser for $25 and he threw the unmatching nightstand in for free.

In the original condition, the pieces were in good shape. The dresser was 100% real wood but was missing a handle. The nightstand was half wood/ MDF and had some water damage to the top that was usually hidden by a glass top.

Since winter was setting in fast, I opted to not do my usual 5 coat/color routine and instead, simply sanded and went straight for the primary paint. After a good sanding to help the paint adhere, I grabbed some left over paint from our kitchen cabinets (Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation) and went to work.

Don’t mind my messy garage.

I did three coats of this color, followed by a good amount of distressing and glaze. Distressing has to be my most favorite part. 🙂

The hardware that I used was left over from the kitchen cabinets that I did happen to also get on Craigslist a few years back. They looked good in their native color and condition so I just had to drill new holes in the drawers and attach them.

I was pretty happy with how they turned out. As a bonus, I was able to sell this set for $125. In the end, it was a nice little profit. 🙂

April 13, 2014By Tyson Uncategorized bedroom, craiglist, distressed, DIY, dresser, nightstand, paintingLeave a Comment

Distressed Letter Project

Finally a new post to put up! Ashley and I have been busy the last few months with the latest edition to our family. But things are starting to fall into routine a bit more and that has allowed us some time to get back to the projects we so love to do. First up on our list was to paint and distress some letters for our new nursery.

Ashley purchased the letters from Hobby Lobby and they came in stock pine. The process started out with a rough sanding as the letters came pretty smooth. After sanding, we proceeded to give them a coat of primer using Zinsser.

We followed that up with a coat of black and then the same orange we used on the Airplane shelf project. Between each coat, we sanded with 120grip sandpaper.

The final two coasts of paint were the same color as used on the Distressed Dresser

Then came the fun part. We put the letters on the ground and proceeded to drop many heavy tools on them (hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers, etc). After a good beating, we ran some course sandpaper around the edges and the flat surfaces. Nothing like a good scuffing! After the beating of a lifetime, we spread on a thin layer of glaze and then wiped it off. The combination of the tools and sandpaper allowed the glaze to sit in a few strategic places and really added to the effect of the distressing.

We had originally planned on putting decoupage some chevron paper over the front but Ashley liked how these turned out so much that she thought we should just leave it as is.

Project Done!

October 14, 2013By Tyson Uncategorized distressed, kids, letters, name, nurseryLeave a Comment

Distressed Dresser Project

I have been wanting to distress a piece of furniture for awhile now. We have several pieces in our home that we purchased already distressed but the process always intimidated me. After getting this gorgeous dresser from Ashley’s folks I decided to give it a try. Oh, did I mention that this dresser actually belonged to Ashley’s Grandma? No pressure to not screw it up!

I wanted to get this project done rather quickly but I also wanted to make sure I did a good job. I started out by doing a real light sanding over the entire dresser. I followed this up with a coat of my favorite primer: Zinsser Water based

After the primer dried, I again went over the entire dresser with some 220 grit sandpaper. Not a huge sanding but enough to knock down any bumps and runs in the paint. After the priming process I covered the dresser in a black paint that I had lying around the garage. The point of these layers is to allow different colors to shine through at the end when I start to really sand it down and distress it.

After the black paint was dry, the real fun began. I was a bit nervous to begin the blue color because I didn’t know how it would go over the black. I could see me doing 4 coats before I finally got the color I wanted. I started out using a foam roller but quickly realized that it wasn’t getting the coverage I wanted. I wanted brush strokes that the glaze could adhere to and enhance. A foam roller’s finish is just too smooth for that look.

The paint I used for the blue is Behr Premium Plus in Interior Flat. I think it might easily be my favorite paint. It went over the black easily and with only two coats! I am currently working on another project using a different style of paint and after 3 coats, my black is still showing through!

After two coats of the blue, the real fun was to begin. This was also the moment of truth. I could easily screw up the last week’s worth of painting with a quick rub of my sanding block in the wrong spot! I ran upstairs to check out the other pieces of distressed furniture we purchased and it looked like they just sanded randomly but in spots that would be susceptible to wear and tear. So that is what I did too.

I began by sanding down edges and then did a few strategic spots on the top, front, and sides. After awhile, my nerves settled down and I really began to have fun with it. After the sanding was completed, I brushed the entire dresser down with some glaze I had left over from a Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation kit that I had. A quick wipe down with some cheese cloth to take off the extra glaze and I was done!

Ashley and I originally were going to replace all of the original hardware with new pieces but because of the varying hole pattern on each drawer and some custom “key” holes, we decided to just repaint the old hardware with some Rustoleum aged bronze spray paint.

After everything was painted and dry, we brought the dresser upstairs (with the help of a great neighbor) and staged it into the new nursery (which is also going to be a project post soon).

The finished product looks amazing, especially in the nursery, and I think I have found a new DIY love. Distressing furniture is fast, easy, and really hard to screw up which makes it perfect for me! I am not the best painter.

Here is a full visual recap of the process.

Project featured below!

June 7, 2013By Tyson Uncategorized antique, distressed, DIY, dresser, kids, makeover, nurseryLeave a Comment