This is part four of my dresser redo project and I am going to show you how I gave this lovely dresser a simple distressed finish. If you happened to miss the first three posts of this project you can find those by clicking the links below:
I knew from the start of this project that I was going to be giving this piece a distressed finish. Its a sauder dresser with a veneer finish so there was going to be no way of staining it back to a wood finish. With the damage that it had, paint again was going to be the only option. The style of the dresser also has an antique touch to it, so distressing it was going to really bring that look out.
I viewed many tutorials from blogland, pinterest and google before attempting this part of the process. Some made it seem really difficult, while others turned a free item into something very costly and time consuming.....all of which I wanted no part of. So, I took bits and pieces from here and there.......and just kind of winged it. The ending result I will say turned out just as great, and I am very pleased. I have money in my pocket and the whole project I completed in one weekend!
I bought this from Lowes......it is the cheapest brand they carry and ran me about 10 bucks for the quart. Seemed expensive being that you can get a whole gallon of paint for that price, but I only used a bout 1/3 of the can for the whole dresser. That left me with enough paint to do a couple more projects to match, which I will show you at a later date. It is a paint and primer in one, with a satin finish, which helped cut down on the cost and time.
The color I chose was Antique Lace.....the name was very fitting! Ok, so I started out with applying a very thin coat over the whole dresser. Being that I was using a paint and primer in one, I was expecting a more solid look, but to my surprise, this was not going to effect the outcome.
So I ended up doing a total of three very thin coats, just using a standard 3 inch angled brush. I allowed about 2-4 hours inbetween for drying time. With the layers being so thin, they seemed to dry pretty quickly. I let the last layer dry for a complete 24 hours before I started to distress the finish.
For the distressing I used a very fine grit sand paper. I went along the edges of the dresser and drawers, just lightly. I tried to hit all the others that you would typically see wear at. Since the dresser already had some nicks and dings in it, I hit those areas too. Once I was satisfied with the look, I cleaned up all the dust again from the sanding.
On most tutorials that I came across they used a sealant such as a polyurethane. I decided to not do this last step. I didn't want it to cause any yellowing of the paint, or add any more glossy shine to it. This is piece is going to be placed in my bedroom so I wasn't too concerned with adding the protective coating. However, if it is going to be in an area of your home where there is children or high traffic, I would def. recommend adding a sealant.
