When I visited Jordan and her new husband at their bungalow in Syracuse a few weeks ago, we had many projects to tackle. Three rooms were awaiting a make-over via paint, lamps were waiting to be purchased and updated, and the dining room was in need of a server which we hoped to purchase at a second-hand store.
We made our first stop at the local Goodwill where we found the perfect armoire, seen below. (Excuse the quality of the photo which was taken with the phone camera). It had drawers for table linens, and shelves could be added to the top part in order to turn it into a bar. However, we couldn’t get it home. It was too heavy. Her husband was out of town, and the Goodwill folks were not allowed to load anything into our vehicle. They could only carry it to the vehicle but not place it in the vehicle. And even if they had loaded it, we couldn’t unload it when we got back to her place.
We left with sad faces but with plans to return a few days later. And lucky for us, we followed up on the plans. When we walked in, we saw a non-descript dresser with straight lines, plain hardware, deep drawers, and an ugly faux wood finish. We fell in love instantly.
The table in Jordan’s dining room is a long, straight, and unadorned piece they bought in the scratch and dent section of Ikea. However, it didn’t have any scratches and dents. The price was too good to walk away from, and so, it became theirs. She replaced the neutral seat covers with a bright green and white print that goes with the lamp that we spray painted and wrote about in an earlier post.
It fits perfectly in their dining room, but it needed an accompanying buffet or server with similar straight lines. That’s where the Goodwill dresser, which she bought for $20, came in to play. She wanted to paint the new dresser black to offset all of the light colors in the room.
The above piece shows the condition the dresser she purchased was originally in. However, it is not the exact piece of furniture.
Before applying paint, I sanded off all of the original finish so the surface would be prepared to accept the new paint.
We also removed all of the hardware and spray painted every piece before reattaching it. Even though the hardware is early American in style, by being painted black, it blended in to the black finish on the dresser. That made a purchase of new hardware unnecessary.
Since I love a good make-over, I volunteered to paint it while she worked on some other projects. All I had to do was give it a good cleaning and then a light sanding to roughen up the finish. I then rolled two coats of semi-gloss enamel on and then spray painted the handles glossy black. We lined the drawers, and just like that, we had the perfect complement for the room.
This view shows the completed dresser with the updated apple green lamp,(which we wrote about here). Notice the four framed prints on the wall above. She made them by purchasing a poster, cutting them into four equal pieces, and framing them. What a creative way to up the ante on a simple stock poster. We will write a future tutorial about this process.
What do you think about our black beauty?
Take care.
Photo of unfinished dresser taken from Craig’s list. Photographer unknown.
Linking to WOW Wednesday at www.savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com
Wow – what a difference! Love the green lamp and framed poster divided into four frames as well – what a great idea!
Thank you for linking up this great post last week! {Im a lil behind, eeekk!}
Its party time AGAIN!!! xoxokara
*ENTER LINKY PAR-TAY Here! *
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