Dresser Before & After

I wanted a tall dresser to replace Finn's changing table in his room and to give him more storage as he starts growing.  Specifically, I wanted this awesome Edland dresser from IKEA.  I love the gray color, the white porcelin drawer pulls, the legs.  What I didn't like?  The $299 price tag for a three year old {who could potentially have an incident with metallic permanent marker on a wood dresser like his mother did...} and the fact that in reality the dresser wouldn't hold much more than what he had in his changing table.

Enter this lovely piece from Craigslist for a whopping $35.  Isn't it a beauty with it's hideous blackish paint faux finish that did nothing but make it look like it was covered in a layer of filth distressed finish, three missing handles, & beautiful yellowy white paint job that was poorly applied?

Yes people... this was painted to look like this.  I am pretty sure that when Dave's friend Doug helped him move this, he was sure that I had lost my mind completely.  It was NOT a pretty sight.

But now?

How we did it {aka: the wholly amature way to refinish furniture}:

1.  Sanded everything completely with an orbital sander, then hand sanded the detail work.

2.  Two coats of gray primer spray paint.

3.  Allow to dry for 24 hours.

4.  One coat of Rustoleum Granite spray paint.**

5.  Allow to dry for 24 hours.

6.  Two coats of Rustoleum Granite spray paint.

7.  Allow to dry for 48 hours.

8.  Add drawer pulls*  

*We may have also run around like idiots looking everywhere for drawer pulls that we liked. 

**Oh and possibly there may have been a dripping incident with my sprayer so I might have had to re-sand the top of the dresser and start over.  Just saying that my impatience sometimes gets the best of me.