Last month, I painted one of my favorite pieces of furniture ever...the Union Jack dresser.
I rarely do the same thing twice, but this dresser received rave reviews and sold in a wink (with six other interested parties), so I thought it was worth making another one. I found the perfect dresser when I was out antiquing with my mom a couple of weeks ago.
It's a little bit smaller and the details are slightly different, but otherwise it's the same.
If there was a paint or a thick finish, I would've stripped the top, but since it just had a thin topcoat that was half-worn off, I simply sanded it with a palm sander.
Applying stain to a dry, sanded wood is one of the most rewarding things in DIY. It instantly looks better, rich and warm. It's like magic. I applied the dark walnut stain with a scrap of drop cloth canvas (left over from an upholstery project.) If you're staining for the first time, wear gloves and rub the stain into the wood with a clean rag in the direction of the wood grain. Allow it to soak into the wood and dry before finishing with a protective coat.
I painted the body of the dresser in a rich blue called Naval (by Sherwin Williams.) It looks like a bright royal blue in these pictures, but once it dries, it look like the blue in the first picture in this post.
It's been too cold to use my sprayer (I can't open my basement doors for ventilation), so it's been the foam roller and brush method for me lately. Come on spring...
Painting can be a killer on the back, so I use a child sized chair to sit at the level of the furniture and save my lower back and hamstrings from all of the strain. We went out to dinner at a friend's house tonight, so I had to leave the dresser with a stained top and two coats of paint. I hope to work on it more tomorrow.
Between coats of paint, I worked on a new project for HGTV with delicious ruffles. You're gonna love this one. Just wait!
