My Very 1st Furniture Redo Project

I was surfing around Craigslist one day during naptime when I saw an ad for a dresser for $15.  I sent the link to Brandon and asked if maybe he could look at it after work.  There was no picture which can be rather suspicious but I figured for $15, it might be worth a look.

He made arrangements and sent me a text saying it was sturdy with mistmatched and missing hardware, but he thought it would be good for what I wanted.  "Please buy it,"  I messaged back.

He loaded it up in his van and brought it home and I nervously met him in the driveway.

He was right.  There was mismatched hardware, a drawer track needed some work and there was something sticky on top.

I jumped up and down and snapped a picture.  It sat in the garage for a bit while I looked at different colors.  I finally found a picture of a red dresser that inspired me.

I ran across this post on a blog that is local to me.  And I knew that was THE red I was looking for.  I picked up a color chip the next time I was at Lowe's.  I stared at it periodically over the next few days.  Then I bought a quart. I also bought some gray tinted primer to help with coverage. 

You might recognize the red from my fireplace decoration... I really like it!
 
Finally, I set to work in the garage.  I had Brandon help me move it a bit (our garage is REALLY full these days) and set to work taking off all the hardware and scrubbing it down.

The front of the drawers were uneven.  It looked like whoever put the hardware on did it with wet paint.  There were grooves where they had been.  So I sanded them down.

I also sanded the top of the dresser because there was something sticky on it that I couldn't get off.

Then I wiped down the dust with a wet washcloth.

When the dresser dried, I primed the drawers and the dresser.

And slowly and carefully painted the Posh Red paint on the dresser.  I worked in little bits of time usually during naptime or after the children went to bed.

Then I started hunting for drawer pulls and knobs.  I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go.  

So every time I went into a store that carried hardware I looked around and I checked out online retailers a few times.  Nothing really screamed, "I'm it!"

 At first I was drawn to the black and white hardware.. I really loved the flowered knobs but I couldn't find any handles to go with them.  I thought the black and white stripes would detract from the other details in the dresser.

And I really loved the one that we nicknamed the "mustache" but I couldn't find any hammered knob pulls to go with it.  I really wanted some hammered swirls, but just couldn't find any.

I needed the space in the garage, so Brandon and I heaved it up the stairs and it fit perfectly in between our closet door and our bathroom door.  But it was hardware-less so it wasn't really functional yet.  

One weekend we were walking through Home Depot and I told Brandon I just had to go check.  He kind of sighed.  I'd checked every hardware section everytime we had been into a store.  But I still went.  And then I didn't return super quickly so he came to find me and I had an armful of knobs and pulls!

 They weren't cheap but we both loved the birdcage design.  As soon we got home I started installing them.  The knobs were perfect.  We twisted the knobs around trying to decide if we liked them horizontally or the vertically.  Horizontal won.

But I ran into a problem with the drawer pulls.  I needed something to hide the holes because the holes had been drilled too big over time. It was hard to take a picture of that, but was really obvious in person.

So I put them back in the bag with the receipt so that I could return them.  A few days later I was in the shower when I realized that I could use knob pulls for the other drawers too.   So I made the return to Home Depot and bought more knobs.

The hardware wasn't cheap for this project.  In fact, I have more invested in the pulls than what I spent for the dresser and the amount of primer/paint it required!  But I really think they complete the piece.

I think this project will always hold a special place in my heart as my first furniture redo.

Is it perfect?  Nope.  But most people don't see the "flaws" I do.

Am I proud of it?  Heck yeah!

As soon we got the project finished up, I started cruising around Craigslist again.  I had been bitten by the furniture makeover bug.  And that is when I found the bedroom set for $50! 

~Stephanie