A New Hobby

For the past few months I've been working on redoing some furniture. In my jewelry room where I design everything, I use an old dresser for bead/supply storage. In an effort to update the house and make some new surroundings since we can't move at the moment, I decided to redo both of them. I forgot to take before pictures of the dresser but here are the knobs which I replaced. It was a pale pink with lots of dents, scratches, and just really worn.
I painted it this bright turquoise-y blue. I couldn't decide if I wanted to antique it or white wash it so I started with the moulding. I haven't white washed before so I really didn't know what I was doing. I knew the plain dresser needed some pizazz of sorts so I applied new moulding and hardware. (By the way does everybody know how expensive knobs and pulls are?! Of course you do because I'm sure I'm the only one that doesn't own a house. I bought a bulk package of these satin nickel beauties which weren't my first choice, 10 for $20. The ones I wanted her $4 a piece and I couldn't bring myself to pay that much for 8 knobs). I decided to white wash the moulding first to see how I liked it and I fell in love. I didn't think the rest of the dresser needed white washed so I left it as is. Which was a win-win because I didn't have to sand the whole thing. Now seeing it altogether I wish I would have done another coat of white washing, but oh well. I'm still absolutely in love!

BEFORE of the cabinet.
Ugly pale yellow with lots of potential.

On the inside are these thick cardboard-like, plywood-like, wallpaper-like thing-ies. Luckily they weren't attached so they were the first things to go.

More of the wallpaper thingy that was on top of the cabinet. This also went.

AFTER........TA DA!!

Here's the inside shot. I painted it white and I'm going to decoupage the back wall with awesome scrapbook paper but I haven't had time to get that far yet. What I love is the space in this puppy. I also love that there are little slits to slide wood separators into each shelf for more organization. Love it!
I painted the cabinet this lime dark green, I love everything about it. After a few coats on the outside I took it outside and sanded down all the edges and made lots of natural looking worn areas. I brought it back inside (since we don't have a garage) and applied a glaze. I've never glazed anything before but I wanted to antique it to bring out the aging and character of the cabinet. I mixed in one part chocolate brown paint to 4 parts glaze and got to work. If you've never glazed before, you just paint on the glaze/paint mix and wipe off with a rag (I'd also recommend using latex gloves). The dark glaze gets into those itty bitty areas and really brings out the character of the furniture.
I didn't think I'd be able to replace the knobs on this cabinet because there were at least 5 different coats of various paint colors on there. The knobs and hinges were painted over and I couldn't remove them without splinting the wood. It was pure luck that I was able to get the knobs off, the old hinges still remain. I can't budge them.

I have a few more projects to finish for my new "studio" which I'm anxious about. My goal is to be finished by Christmas but I don't think that's going to happen with everything going on the next few months. I have LOVED every moment of working on this furniture. I think I may become a DI and yard sale regular to see what else I can turn into something more my style. I have really love, love, LOVED it!!!