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If you’ve followed along, you’ll know that I’ve been working with some Modsy designs to makeover my master bedroom. Part of that makeover included new furniture – or rather, “new to me” furniture.
This Modsy rendering shows the Sausalito extra-wide dresser from Pottery Barn:
It’s gorgeous, and I love it, but it rings in at $2,111 Cdn which is a skinch out of my price range.
Instead, I decided to search Kijiji to find a dresser with the approximate measurements of the Sausalito so that I could keep within the Modsy scale for furnishings for the room.
I found this baby for $120:
Different style and colour, and it had a few nicks and scratches, but it had the correct measurements – everything else can be fixed.
To start my dresser makeover I had to strip it down to bare wood using my sander. I started with 60 grit (carefully) to get the varnish off, but without going over it too many times in case any sections were veneer…. and they were.
I sanded the rest of it to bare wood/veneer using 150 grit and then smoothing with a 220 grit sandpaper.
Looking good already right? I was so excited!
WAS.
I had a custom stain made to get as close to the Pottery Barn finish as I could, but when I applied it to my dresser this happened:
NOOOOOOOOO!
All of the different woods and veneers took the stain differently! The drawer faces had a real red tinge to them, the edges of the drawers seemed to soak up only the gray in the stain, the cherry side rails stayed red…
Only the top and sides absorbed the stain how I’d hoped. I was about to throw in the towel on this piece and just paint it – then I thought I’d give my colour-guru Leisa a call to see if she could come up with any ideas to save this piece.
Of course she did.
I went over the entire dresser with a wash – 1/3 paint 2/3 water mix in BM’s Briarwood – painted on, then wiping off the excess after a few minutes. (Note: you should only do this once your stain is completely dry)
My dresser makeover is still less-than-perfect, but at least the reds and yellows in the wood have evened out a bit.
The sides of the dresser are perfect, as-is the top. Thank you Leisa!
I finished up my dresser makeover with a glossy polyurethane finish for both protection and to bring in a bit more light. Did you know that the difference between gloss finishes and semi-gloss finishes is the amount of reflective materials in the can?
I know, there are still some gradients in the finish – but it’s considerably better than stage 1 or stage 2 of the dresser makeover.
The top is absolutely perfect; it’s absorbed some of the grays from the stain to give the wood highs and lows and not just a flat, boring finish.
Because I had planned on using stain for this dresser makeover, I didn’t want to fill the old holes and risk the stain showing on the putty – for this reason I didn’t go with knobs like the Sausalito dresser. Instead, I found these Notched Pulls from Liberty Hardware which fit the sizing and added a rounded softness to the dresser.
Simple, elegant, modern, understated – perfect.
I still have a way to go to see my entire Modsy master bedroom rendering come true – but this dresser makeover is already a big improvement.
If you want to try Modsy out for yourself (which I can’t recommend highly enough), use code 100THINGS20 to get 20% off of any design package. (I use the $69 US design package – which for you will be $55.20 with the promo code – and it includes two designs of your room and unlimited revisions.)
A before and after?
If you insist:
I’ve got two night stands halfway finished in the garage – so keep coming back!
Have a great one!