Biggest Project So Far

I have always seen people all over Pinterest up cycle old furniture and I have my nursery set from when I was a baby and thought it would be awesome if I could refinish both of the dressers into something functional for my home. But since they are such sentimental pieces I didn't want to make a mistake or ruin them on my first go at it... So I started scouting garage sales and craigslist for something cheap that if I destroyed I would be heartbroken over it. After only like a week of searching I found this behemoth: 

 It was listed as a "buffet" cabinet which was perfect for me because I was looking for something that had a bit of storage as well.

 You may not be able to tell but it was in rough shape. The couple selling it had it listed for $240 which was WAY more that I wanted to spend on a project but I was able to talk them down to $80. I left as a happy camper with this monstrosity (seriously it weighs a TON). Looking back I wish I wouldn't have paid that much but for the quality and size of this piece it was worth it.


So I knew right off the bat I had some work ahead of me because of how scratched and beat up it was. And I found a power sander for less than $20 and got to work, sanding and sanding and sanding.

Once I got it smooth then I had to decide whether I was going to paint or stain. I decided my house needed an accent color and I picked to paint. And I knew I wanted to use chalk paint. Originally, I was looking for a "distressed" look with white chalk paint but that would not have looked good in my house so I chose Disney's Chalkpaint in red. It's called "A Shirt for Pooh" and it was the PERFECT color.

It took about 3 coats for it to be even and completely covered but I still only needed 1 small can. (Wow!)

It dries incredibly fast, so having to do the multiple coats was really not that time consuming.

I also chose to use a satin based polyurethane and applied a few coats of that before I went to "distress" the edges.

Now if you are doing something like this project and you want to distress it STOP! 
Luckily, I started with a drawer and when I grabbed the sandpaper to smooth out the poly and distress it, it was a disaster. the Chalk paint came off so easily and turned pink. It was awful and I had to repaint that drawer and start over. No distressing on this project for me. Maybe if I use another color.

Okay, lets talk hardware. I did not like the plain boxy squared off handles that it came with so I started searching for new hardware. Let me just say "Holy Cow". Ridiculously expensive. I wanted a french provincial style decorative handle... which cost about $9 a piece. and I have 6 drawers and 2 cabinets. Yeah...not going to happen. My goal was to keep the project under $100 and that would have put me way over. So I settled for a good ol' can of spray paint.

I chose a dark metallic brown almost black because...... that's what I had already.

Free is always the best answer. Always.

The other "extra" I wanted to add were drawer liners. I ended up deciding on black and white contact paper that was on sale. And it turns out that I just love it. It was a super simple way to dress up the plain boring wood drawers. 

 After all was said and done, I put in about 6 hours of work and I am completely stoked with how it turned out. It fits my house perfectly. Here is the finished product: 

And of course, my favorite type of picture the Before and After: 

Things I learned: It is not necessary to sand all the way down, when you are using paint. If you want a smoother surface you can do a little more but as much as I put into it, it was not necessary. If you find cheap hardware somewhere buy it. Because I'm fairly certain "cheap" hardware does not exist. Use what you have or be prepared to spend some serious $dough$. DON'T try to distress red chalk paint. It will turn pink. Polyurethane will ruin whatever you are using to put it on with. I used a microfiber cloth and it is trashed. Also, paint both sides of the hardware. The tops look great but my 1 year old little princess loves to flip the handles up and the ugly brass side shows. Its annoying but not enough for me to take them all apart and paint it again. 

Materials and Cost: 

Cabinet-Garage Sale Find: $80

Disney Chalkpaint-1 Sm. Can: $11

1 Roll of Contact Paper: $5

Spraypaint-Owned: Free

Sandpaper: $7

Total Project Cost: $102

$2 Over Budget