Life Interrupted and a White and Tan Dresser

Well, the last three months have been a bit….stressful. I started babysitting my grandchildren three times a week, helped my daughter move, shopped for furniture with her, painted her apartment and discovered I have a complex tear of the meniscus, osteoarthritis and a bakers cyst in my knee.

But by far the most stressful thing has been discovering that someone very close to me has cancer. I’ve been through this with my mom, but this person is young and active and it’s hard to realize that they could be taken away from you.  Luckily, the doctors found it early and surgery has been performed successfully.  The doctors feel they got it all and her recovery is going well.  I am so relieved, pleased and happy.  You don’t realize how stressed you are as this is occurring, but afterwards, the relief you feel is enormous.

Now things are a little less stressful, my knee feels a little better and painting is back on!  I have completed my first project since all this started and I can’t wait to show you.

I think I mentioned this before, maybe I didn’t, oh well, if not I will now.  I like simple pieces of furniture that have architectural details with a little punch.  I like to paint simply and let the piece sparkle.  This dresser is the perfect example of that.  This is what it looked like before…

And this was exactly what it looked like when I picked it up.  Someone had started to sand it down and stopped.  They did the hard work for me, all I had to do was fine sand, wipe it down and paint.  Love that!  Look at the curves at the top!  So pretty.   It’s hard to see in this picture because of the color, but the top two drawers are opposites of each other…makes for a beautiful architectural detail.

I have been wanting to paint something in tan and white, I love that color combination.  It is simple and clean, but really makes a statement.  I used Benjamin Moore’s Dove White and Valspar’s Shopping Bag along with my favorite go to additive Poppies Paint Powder.  I used Poppies to create a chalk paint type finish for durability and to cover the black.  Here you can see what it looked like in process.  A lot of white and little tan.

What a difference, huh?  White makes everything bright.  It was a labor of love for this one because it was so beat up.  I filled countless holes, but not all of them.  Every piece of furniture has a story to tell and I don’t like to cover every knick and dent, but I also don’t want it to scream the story, just calmly tell it. 🙂

Before I started even painting, I knew what handles I wanted to put on.  I saw them at Hobby Lobby, bought them and waited for the right piece to come along.  For this dresser, I used two different types, a larger white rose and a clear glass rose.  I didn’t buy enough and had to go back, but that worked out too, because they had a bunch of knobs on clearance, woo hoo, yay me!

I decided to put two different top coats on.  Polycrylic for the inside of the drawers and the surround where the drawers go in and Daddy Vans Wax for the drawer fronts, top, sides and bottom of the dresser.  This worked well and the sheens are nearly identical.

Isn’t she a beauty?  Simple and elegant.  Just look at how the curves on the dresser show up now and do you see how the first two drawers are opposites?  Not every piece I paint comes out the way I first envision it, but his one did and I love it!!  She’ll be in my booth by the end of the week.

What do you think of the tan and white?