A while back the boyfriend picked up a dresser he saw on the side of the road. It was in good shape structurally but boy oh boy whoever painted this thing did NOT know how to paint. Or they were just extremely lazy. I can’t tell. Please ignore the ugly paneling and the fact that one picture is not in the same orientation as the others. Oops. #SorryNotSorry
First of all that contact paper is dreadfully ugly and it was really dirty. In the second picture you can see that they painted the dresser but obviously didn’t prime or do a second coat. It’s like they got sick of it and never came back. Also it looks like towards the bottom they didn’t want to get paint on whatever surface the dresser was on so they just avoided that part. Third picture. Apparently they didn’t own a screw driver either so they just slopped some paint on the drawer pull and also didn’t look behind the front of the knob to make sure they got it all. COME ON PEOPLE. Now I almost won’t dump on the top of the dresser because I actually like the look of the wood top BUT they very sloppily painted the sides of the dresser.
Now that I’m done being angry, I’ll show you the process of making the awfulness go away.
First I propped the drawers up on random objects, took the drawer pulls off, and sanded the drawers slightly. The front right drawer had a little bubble so of course I peeled it and it ended up being a lot bigger than I expected. But it wasn’t anything a little primer and paint couldn’t fix.
What a huge difference one coat of paint can do!
I also spray painted the knobs, and as you can see I made sure to get every angle. Eventually I plan on replacing these because the one on the very right is chipped in weird ways. Yet another baffling thing about this dresser.
The dresser is being used in my boyfriend’s son’s room and my main motivation for fixing it up was all the hand-me-down clothes piled up in our living room. All the clothes in the dresser are hand-me-downs plus a bunch more hung up in his closet. Holy cow!
First off, if you are wondering what the heck is behind the dresser. It’s a door. I think at one time our “duplex” was a single family home and this was a doorway that led to the basement. In order to make it a duplex they just took the rest of the stairs out and added a door. It’s really strange and there’s not really a way to make it any less strange. *sigh*
Anyway, I couldn’t really get all of the paint off the wood so I got as much as I could. I also used some leftover Restor-A-Finish to hide the scratches and brighten up the wood a little bit.
In the future I would love to paint the drawer fronts and sides red to give it a little pop. I might even change the drawer pulls to Captain America shields to go along with the Avengers theme we’ve got going on. I’m just relieved to have this checked off my to-do list!
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And if you want to see the next phase in this dresser makeover click here.
See You Around!
Lauren <3
Sorry but, the door made me laugh!! We understand strangeness as our home is full of it 😀 The dresser looks great!
Thank you! It’s even weirder that they left the carpet over hang there too. It makes me mad when people cut corners in a home like that.
Absolutely!
You fixed it right up. I personally don’t like contact paper due to the sticky residue which actually clings to dust and dirt. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
Thanks Jo! I was actually surprised how easily the contact paper came off. I think it has its place, but it wasnt in that dresser!
Amazing what a coat of white paint can do! How did you get the paint off the wood top? I’m trying to figure out how to get paint slop off of some wooden baseboards from the previous owners.
Honestly I just picked at it until it came off. I couldn’t get all of it. I’ve seen some things on Pinterest about using a heat gun and a scraper for large surfaces. I thought about using a hair dryer on it, but I didn’t try it. Let me know if you do!