How To: Budget Dresser for Baby-to-Be Erin's February Jumpstart Project 2009

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Title: Budget Dresser for Baby-to-Be
Name: Erin
Time: 8 hours, not including drying time
Cost: $23 for paint and drawer pulls, already had the other materials

Erin gave this "abused dresser" from her parent's house a makeover. Click above for pics, below for the how-to and be sure to give Erin a THUMBS UP if you find this project helpful....

Tools::
Brushes, dropcloth, Phillips-head screwdriver Materials: Abused dresser, Olympic Low-VOC Primer, 1 quart Olympic Kitchen & Bath Semi-Gloss paint in "Caruso", acrylic art and craft paints in a variety of colors, drawer pulls

Steps:
We needed a budget-friendly dresser for our upcoming baby girl's nursery. I wanted to do something fun and colorful. I scrounged this unused dresser from my parents' house. It was originally purchased from a yard sale and my brother used it for many years growing up, so the finish was quite marred. 1. Removed unattractive and broken hardware. 2. Cleaned all surfaces with damp cloth and dried thoroughly. 3. Primed with Olympic low-VOC primer. Let dry and gave a second coat. 4. Painted all external surfaces with Olympic Kitchen & Bath Semi-Gloss (for durability and easy cleaning) and let dry. Past painting experience has encouraged me to leave the parts of the dresser you don't see unpainted, so that they don't stick or chip. The general guideline I use is to paint only the surfaces where the original finish was applied. 5. Gave second and third coats, with ample drying time between each coat. 6. After base coat was completely dry, I applied some fun colors on the dental molding. Not really following any sort of pattern, I mixed acrylic paints as I went along. 7. Installed new pull handles with screwdriver.

Sources::
Paint: Olympic low-VOC paints from Lowe's are affordable, accessible and really great to use, but I hardly ever see the Olympic brand on lists of environmentally friendlier options. I've used them in my entire house and have yet to be disappointed. Drawer pulls: The original hardware was an unusual size (2.5 inch spread between holes), but I was able to find a great deal on new pulls on eBay ($1.49 each!).

Give Erin a THUMBS UP if you find this project helpful....

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I love the different colors on the dental molding. At first I thought that was tiles that you had fixed on there. Very great idea!

posted by kpag on February 17th 2009 at 2:37pm
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Looks great! I, too love the Lowes Olympic brand paint. We're painting allllll of our kitchen cabinets at the moment and are finding it much easier to tolerate this winter project without all of the fumes! They cover well, too.

Good job, Erin

posted by EricaHT on February 17th 2009 at 3:45pm
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Erin, great job! I love the color and the extra colors on the molding make it fun.

posted by Devlieger on February 17th 2009 at 5:06pm
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Very nice! Good job!

posted by pwheaton on February 17th 2009 at 5:52pm
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What an improvement! You did a beautiful job, I love the colors on the dental molding. Please come to my house next...we have a couple of dressers that could use updating.

posted by ReneeR on February 17th 2009 at 6:41pm
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Looks great. I really like the dental molding- very creative!

posted by kimmiller on February 18th 2009 at 11:22am
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love the color!

you should consider plugging the screw holes on the bottom with spackle and painting over them.

posted by Linda @ thebargainlife.com on February 18th 2009 at 6:42pm
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Thanks for all the nice comments. Linda - The "screw holes" at the bottom aren't actually screw holes, but decorative indentations. I painted them red. You can see detail in the "tools" photo.

posted by erinjane on February 18th 2009 at 7:40pm
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Great dresser update! I have been planning on doing a very similar update on two second hand dressers I have found to furnish the baby's room. Very nice!

posted by lizzymov on February 19th 2009 at 11:10am
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The baby will love it!

posted by JCH on February 22nd 2009 at 11:31am
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This is great. Inspired me to work on some more of my "canvases" i.e. scavenged furniture.

posted by housefulloffur on February 23rd 2009 at 10:33am
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delightful and refreshing refurbishment of a nice classic piece of furniture, happy bright colors for the new little one...

posted by vincico on February 23rd 2009 at 6:41pm
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Babies are so demanding.

posted by adamhucke on February 26th 2009 at 12:47pm
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Beautiful, good luck!
Tammy (I work with your dad)

posted by Thaxton7 on February 27th 2009 at 12:15pm
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Beautiful colors and looks to be easy to do.

posted by sgain1538 on February 27th 2009 at 12:25pm
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Great choice of colors, hardware. Perfect for a baby's room!!

posted by crboock on March 1st 2009 at 4:58am
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Bright, colorful, just perfect for a baby girl's room!!!

posted by ruthiern on March 1st 2009 at 11:21pm
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It's really gorgeous! I'm curious, b/c I'm thinking about attempting a similar project and I'm a total novice: Most of the how-tos I see for refurbished furniture talk about stripping and/or sanding. Why didn't you have to do either of those things with this piece?

posted by designphan on February 4th 2010 at 10:31pm
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