Antique Your Own Dresser {or anything really}

So this is what I started out with. I am very grateful for the sweet lady who gave this to us for free. It just needed a little fixin up since the handles were missing, and I thought what a great project to make this really fun and brighten up our bedroom. 

So I dragged Matt to Lowe's. It is rare when a women has to drag her man to a hardware store, but we are very unconventional that way. My mom taught us girls if we wanted it done, we could do it ourselves, we didn't need a guy to do everything. Not to mention my dad is a cute computer nerd who, for the most part didn't really know what he was doing. And now I married a school nerd who is brilliant...except for anything that has to do with manual labor :) Anyway...back to the project!

First you want to sand what you are painting, especially if the original paint had a glossy texture.

Taking everything apart makes it a lot easier to sand and paint.

After you have sanded, paint everything the color of your choice. The pain I chose was from Lowe's, and is called Valspar Indoor Satin Finish; the color is Golden Avocado. {Yes, I am quite aware it is very bold}. I got the smaller container of pain that cost about 15 dollars, and it was able to finish a dresser, mirror and two large bedside tables. If that helps you know how much to get. 

Ok, after it has finished {if you want it to have an antiqued look} you can get an antiquing glaze from Lowe's as well, or probably other places, but that is where I got it. There was only 1 choice there, but it worked really well. 

You can use the instructions on the glaze, but I will tell you how I did it so you can see how easy it is.

This is how the dresser turned out with the antiquing glaze. 

You just wet an old rag so it is barely damp. Then dip the cloth into the glaze and rub it onto the surface in round sweeps to make sure you get it all over. Then you can use the part of the rag that is still damp and clean to wipe off excess if you want it to be subtle. It is all up to your tastes. 

So here is the dresser finished. You can't tell how bright the color is in this pic because I took it inside our room, but I also painted our bedside tables with the Golden Avocado, and this is an accurate picture of the yellow in this pic:

Yay! I love bright colors :) As for the handles on both the dresser and bedside tables, I got them at Hobby Lobby with my 40% coupon {I drug Matt there too to make my coupons go further. What a good sport}.

There ya go! Such an easy process...maybe not as easy on the work aspect, but definitely worth it when I got the finished project. And I was right, it did brighten up the room. 

As for the cost: The paint, cabinet paint roller, antiquing glaze and all the handles cost about 35 dollars. Not to shabby!