New Baby's Dresser

With a new baby arriving some time in the next 2-7 weeks, I've [Susie] been feeling the crunch to get everything set for baby. We were going to move around some dressers to accommodate the new little person's clothing, but after a bit of a forgetfulness snafu, I decided I should find a way to use the hideous, old one I was getting ready to throw out. 

It had a peeling finish, broken doors, and to be completely honest, it was the bottom half of a china cabinet. It was never intended for use as a dresser. (Please pardon the ugly photo and hideous mess, this was from a "My House is Trashed" blog post). You can see that the door never liked to stay shut, the hinge was broken at the bottom, the messed up finish is obvious.

I took to the doors with a flathead screwdriver and pried them right off the front. A few minutes of work took the broken hinges off too. Then I took to it with 60 grit sandpaper and (go with the grain!) took off all the finish. Because it was such an old finish, it came off almost completely in 30 minutes of sanding.

Then I went over it with a 100 grit sandpaper. If I had it to do over again, I would have bought a pack of higher grit sandpaper for a final finish, but just using 60 and 100 worked fine.

Then I sprayed it two two layers of primer spray paint. I did this over the course of a few days - sandpaper 1 day, 1 layer of primer in the day, 1 at night, etc. 

Then I painted it over with two coats of Glidden Caribbean Sea. Now, I'm not convinced it was actually Caribbean Sea. I got the quart of paint in a Glidden giveaway last year and when I opened it I thought, "Odd, that looks too blue..." But since it was free, I went ahead with the project. I think it's actually Glidden Cool Cobalt and I still love it. 

Then I took a piece of 100 grit paper to the finish and rubbed off some of the paint. I went with the grain on the flat panels and then gave special attention to the corners to take off more paint. 

The final touch was fabric covered baskets to go inside the shelving. A tutorial is coming soon! Easiest $10 project!

The secret weapon: Dollar Tree plastic bins can be hidden.

I love the overall look! Can't wait to get it upstairs!