Dresser flip

I found another treasure on the side of the curb a while back. If the residents of my small town realized what could be done with these items, they might come marching over to my house and demand them back. Shhh don't tell them! Here is the dresser we picked up:

I can see why someone threw it out. It's seen better days! It's definitely not wood, but I saw potential. It will go in our basement and I can't decide if I should turn it into a TV stand, hall table, or something else.

I decided to fix it up as a dresser for now and once the basement is finished I can tweak it if need be by taking out a couple drawers and painting the exposed inside. For example, if I want it to be a TV stand, I'll take out the top drawers like this:

Two Twenty One

I've done this before for the upstairs living room. See that project here.

If I want it to be more of a hall or couch table I'll take out the bottom drawers like this:

Two It Yourself

Since our basement is still unfinished, it's hard to know exactly where this piece belongs!

I took the hardware off and sanded the dresser.

I love the handles! The brassy color has to go though.

See that crack in the corner? I put some wood glue behind it and clamped it down.

Do you see where it's missing a couple pieces of wood? We took scrap wood and painted it the same as everything else and then nailed it in.

Normally sanding would be enough, but this dresser was pretty beat up and is made out of a cheap material so I added a primer as a precaution after cleaning with TSP. I used Rust-Oleum flat black primer.

I had this Rust-Oleum Gloss Black paint on hand so decided to use that up. Looking back, I would have picked more of a matte paint. Guess that's what I get for being cheap and trying to use what I have!

The top drawer has one coat of paint while the bottom only has the primer. What a difference! Please ignore our filthy garage. Winter and pulling our dirty cars in is taking it's toll.

I did three coats of paint on everything except the top. The top was pretty beat up so I added a couple extra coats.

Walla! It certainly does not look glamorous in our garage. I can't wait until I can bring it inside and decorate it up.

I spray painted the handles black and then used Rub 'n Buff in Silver Leaf on them. What a cool product! This was my first time using it. It can be found at craft stores. Mine was $4.99 at Hobby Lobby, but with a 40% coupon it was $3. Check out yesterday's post for more info on Rub 'n Buff.

I'll be honest. I don't like the glossy black finish. Looks tacky. Once I figure out exactly where this piece is going and how I want to alter it, I'll probably go over the dresser with a flat black paint. At least it's cleaned up and looking better!

So far this has cost me less than $10. Not bad!