Update A Dresser In 2 Hours! • Vintage Revivals

Sometimes projects are HUGE. They take a crapload of time and effort. And while they are usually worth it, sometimes you just want something simple. Did you know that you can literally update a dresser during naptime?!

Here is the skinny.

I found this dresser on AZ Craigslist. After a late night trip to a sketchy part of town (that may or may not have involved Jilly having a heart attack while almost witnessing a stray cat being hit, which in turn gave the rest of us a heat attack thinking she was being carried away by drug lords or possibly someone cutting off her favorite finger. That girl can scream)

Anyway back to the dresser. It was $75 and in GREAT condition.

The one downside was that the outer shell of it was laminate. Now, normally I am not a huge fan but it was fairly realistic looking laminate and (like I mentioned before) it was in great condition. So we went with it.

Because we already had a lot of wood in Kelsey’s room (on the wall and on the sliding barn door) this happy little dresser got a quick update just by painting the drawer fronts!

The first step is to make sure the piece is clean. Depending on the level of grime you might need to use a strong cleaner like TSP.

When its clean and dry you are ready to start! Meet your best friend. This is Kilz. It is hands down THE BEST primer on the market, especially when it comes to laminate pieces. The key to using Kilz is to shake shake shake (for a good 2 minutes) before you spray. If you don’t it will come out sandpapery and you will have to sand it smooth.

Once your primer is dry (usually between 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the temperatures outside) give it a quick once over with 220 grit sand paper. This will make it silky smooth and make it look uber professional.

Wipe your piece down with a slightly damp rag or tack cloth to get all of the sanding dust off (if you skip this step you will have an epic spray paint fail FYI. So don’t forget!!)

Give your drawer fronts 2-3 good coats of spray paint. If you have read any of my posts about spray paint you know that I am a Krylon fan until I die. I have a few reasons I love it, let me share them with you.

1. The nozzle. Its life changing folks. Instead of spraying in a circle like most brands it sprays in a line AND it rotates. So if you are moving your can horizontally across your piece you want to make sure that your nozzle is turned to spray in a vertical line. That way it is covering a much larger area. I feel like I have WAY more control with a can of Krylon.

2. Krylon cures very quickly. If you are spray painting a piece of furniture chances are you like things done fast. There are some lines that take HOURS to cure. It is SO frustrating when you have given it adequate time and in all of your excitement pick it up and its still tacky (the one bonus to that is, if you ever go missing and the cops need your fingerprints you can bet your hoard its perfectly impressed into that lamp.)

3. The color selection! Krylon has SO many on trend colors to choose from AND if there is one that you cant find check out this post I wrote a while ago on how to get the top secret colors you cant find anywhere else for FREE!

As much as I loved the white and wood, this thing needed a little bit more flair. And tell me my friends, what can add more flair than bright pink?

To “color dip” a piece like this all you need is a roll of ScotchBlue and some paint (we used a sample pot from Lowes, just like I used on the Leather Belt Dresser Pulls)

Start by removing the legs if you can (it just makes it a little easier to work with). Hailee being the genius she is found a piece of Styrofoam to hold our legs

Simple and impactful my lovies.

I wanted the dresser to be super complimentary to the rest of the room without trying to steal the show. Sometimes that is what you need out of a piece of furniture.

Everything in the room cant be the star, but just because something isn’t the star doesn’t mean it needs to be generic or dull.

Did you notice the red lamp that we got for $5 from Serg?

I LOVE how this dresser turned out, and can you believe it was such a simple project!? Do you have something that could use a 2 hour update? I want to hear all about it!