Painting an old dresser or chest of drawers
Salvaged Vintage Dresser

Vintage dresser update – the big reveal!

Finally today I can say, ‘Ta-dah!’ and reveal how a beat-up old chest of drawers that was rescued from a skip can be given a new lease of life with some chalk paint, wax and a couple of new knobs.

This was it before, looking sad and unloved …

Vintage drawers makeover

…and here it is now, in all its new madeover glory

Painting an old dresser or chest of drawers

Because two of the original drawer knobs were missing, I was really wondering what to replace them with, but I think the pretty pair of Anthropologie drawer knobs I found on Ebay really work:

Anthropologie drawer knobs

I lined the drawers with some designer wallpaper that we had left over from our bedroom feature wall.  It is by Kelly Hoppen and I think the natural/silver colours complement the ‘French Linen’ shade of Annie Sloan chalk paint quite nicely.  The geometric design is a little ‘Art Deco’ in style, which I think more or less suits the era of the chest.

Salvaged dresser given a chalk paint makeover and new drawer knobs

I used two coats of paint on the chest and a couple of coats (3 on top) of wax to protect and finish the piece.  After that, I did a little distressing with a sanding sponge around the edges, but I didn’t go crazy.  I’m really happy with how it turned out, it was not too difficult – just took a little time and care, like most worthwhile projects.  I definitely think the vintage chest of drawers was worth saving from that skip, don’t you?

If you enjoyed this makeover you can check out my next project here, which was to give an orange blanket box/toy chest a new look.

© Copyright 2012 Antonia, All rights Reserved. Written For: Tidylife
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