Grandma would be proud

When I was in the 8th grade, my grandmother passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. Nice opening line, right? I promise, this tale has a happy ending. After she passed, she left her bedroom dressers, circa 1890, to my parents. My parents didn't have much use for them but, because they held a  sentimental value, couldn't part with them.

The dressers spent about 6 months in storage, until my parents said it would be ok for me to use them in my bedroom (which I was redoing at the ripe old age of 13). The dressers were in rough shape, and needed some tlc. I got some advice from a local furniture restoration company, bought all the supplies I'd need, and set to work. I spent all that summer stripping, repairing, staining and waxing them until they looked like new. They even had their original iron and brass locks...complete with a skeleton key! Wicked cool character!

When I moved out, the dressers stayed behind. There was always periodic talk about me coming to pick them up, but I never did. Over the years, the pair was split up: my sister took the chest of drawers, and the dresser went to my parent's spare room and then to their basement. When we moved into our new house, I just knew that I was finally going to be able to make use of them again, my much loved (and now well worn) dressers that held such a connection to my grandmother.

I decided that it was time to breath some youth and funk into these relics. They have a wonderful shape and proportions, all they needed was some pizzaz! Originally, I was drawn to the idea of attaching mirrors to the drawer fronts and dresser sides.

When I looked into having mirrors cute to size, however, the cost was more than I wanted to spend. I decided to stick with the idea, but to change it up a bit after seeing a couple of great dresser make-overs at Casa Sugar and one from Shecars. I even found a few inspirations at some online stores!

Here is how I rescued and reused the dresser...now in our master bedroom:

I started by removing all the hardware from the dresser and gave the dresser a quick sanding with my handy dandy palm sander (I used a sanding block to get in the little crevaces). I then gave it a good wipe with a tack cloth to make sure there was no dust on the surfaces. Next I gave it a coat of primer. I let this dry overnight (note my fatty cat Jones checking out my handywork).

The next morning, I painted the dresser and drawer fronts with 2 coats of black paint, CIL's Black Mica, in a satin finish and let it dry for 8 hours.

Now the fun part. I painted the dresser drawer fronts with Benjamin Moore Metallix Copper. I did 3 coats, I wanted to be sure to get enough coverage as the paint is a bit transluscent. The Metallix paint ended up being a bit fussy. If I use it on a large piece like this again, I may consider spraying it on, instead of brushing or rolling it.

Once everything had a chance to dry, I attached the new hardware and shazam...love it!

Here is the breakdown of costs for this project:
$0 for the dresser
$0 primer (leftovers from our condo renovations)
$5 for metallic paint
$15 for black paint
$3 for sponge roller refills
$2 for sponge brushes
$40 for new drawer pulls
Total Cost = $ 65