Hello everyone,

Spring is finally bringing some warm-ish days, so I’ve been able to spend a few hours in my uninsulated and unheated garage to play with furniture.

This time I decided to work on something very large I’ve had stored for years! I love this chest of drawers. It is so simple and yet so beautiful. The reason I delayed this project for so long was that I knew it would be hard work. It had broken drawers, water damage, missing veneer… a long list of repairs to be done before I could actually make it pretty with paint. But I knew it would be worth it.

I will tell you all about my process here, but I highly recommend that you watch this short video tutorial if you really want to learn how to do it step-by-step.

This is how it used to look:

It took me an entire day to fix and clean this guy, but once it was over, I couldn’t wait to get to the fun part.

And here’s how I did it.

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The repairs took a lot of wood filler, glue, and nails and the hours I spent scrubbing and washing it with TSP gave me a back pain.

I sanded the whole thing to get a smooth finish and did another thorough cleaning before priming it with clear shellac.

Shockingly, I didn’t use my paint sprayer to paint this giant. I was going for a more artistic finish so it would be nice to have the texture of some brush strokes. It turns out the paint and paintbrush I used didn’t leave any brush strokes. I could have gone for a modern, smooth finish if I changed my mind.

By the way, if you are planning to paint furniture, I strongly recommend that you invest on at least one high-quality brush. Surely the good ones are more expensive, but if you take good care of them (basically remembering to wash them well after each use), they will last many years. I’ve had my Staalmeester brushes for almost 2 years now, and they still work as beautifully as they did on the first day.

When I paint metallics, I always cover my piece with one coat of a base color, that should be similar to the metallic color I’m going to apply. For this dresser, I chose “Ash“, a beautiful charcoal gray by Fusion Mineral Paint.

I covered the entire piece in gray using my brushes and in about forty minutes, it looked like this.

When the gray was dry, went on to apply the metallic colors. On a paper plate, I put one large blob of Modern Masters Silver next to another blob of Modern Masters Black Pearl. Then I touched both colors with the tip of my brush bristles, enough to collect a bit of each color without mixing them.

Next, I brushed the surface in long linear motions and let the colors blend naturally as I moved my brush from side to side, leaving some apparent streaks. In my video tutorial, you can see exactly what I’m talking about.  I kept my brush wet at all times by occasionally spraying some water on its bristles.

When I was happy with the finish, I waited for it to dry and started the glazing process. I applied  Pitch Black Glaze by General Finishes using a chip brush, then immediately wiping off the excess with baby wipes.

I bought a small can (one pint) of this glaze over a year ago and I feel I’ve already used so much of it! It is hard to believe I still have 3/4 of the can left. One little can goes a long way! It also helps that I always add some water to it, to make it workable for longer. Glaze dries pretty quickly, so it is advisable to keep it a little diluted in water and work one small area at a time. My video also shows you how.

I then got my paint sprayer out of the cabinet and sprayed three coats of General Finishes Top Coat, satin.

I finished by installing these cool bar pulls and round knobs I found on Amazon for a bargain.

Here is how this big guy looks now. Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

Patricia.

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