TRANSFORMATION: BEDROOM DRESSER

this set of drawers was found by the side of the road. at the time i was a student with no money and i just needed furniture. i'm pretty sure my dad helped me carry this set of drawers to my room in the garage, and there it stayed until i moved, and it has travelled with me to my different houses since. it was not exciting, but it was free, and it held my clothes.

i had been thinking it was time to upgrade or to redo this piece, as i had worked out most other things in our bedroom. when we moved we bought our yellow bed (which i love), i had stained and painted some wine crates for bedside tables, i had put in a shelf (above this dresser) to hold pictures and trinkets, and this was one of the last big pieces in the room that i wasn't happy with. when i was looking at furniture redo projects, i started seeing the two-tone timber and white which i really liked. but i love colour, so had to work out how to get that in as well.

so i took off the old knobs, took the drawers out and started sanding (that is always the least fun part but you can't do the fun bits until the sanding is done!). i borrowed my dad's belt sander which was really helpful for the drawers. as i was staining these (as opposed to painting) i had to get much more of the existing stain and gloss off than on the body. for the body, the main priority was getting the gloss off so the new paint would stick. after sanding the main body, i got out the spakfilla to fix up some dents, but i did this only on the body as you would see it after staining on the drawers. once ready for paint, the painters tape came out. the top was painted first (i think i did four coats), then the remainder of the base was painted. after this came my critical error :( i used spray gloss over antique white house paint. it went yellow :( i was not very happy at all. so i undid my hard work and sanded it back. this time i used a primer coat of white, then used a vivid white with the gloss in the paint instead of having to coat it. worked much much better (it still looks white!!). the final touch was the knobs. after much umming and ahhing (they are real words right?) i decided on these ceramic ones. there were some glass ones i really liked that i could only order online, and without seeing how sturdy they were i was worried they might break. i think the ones i ended up with work well, as they tie back into the white body.

here is what i ended up with.

it is not an overly well made piece of furniture, with some bits being a chipboard type product, and others being regular pine, but with a bit of a makeover, you wouldn't know it unless you got out a fine tooth comb and magnifying glass.

do you like it? what transformations have you undertaken and were they a success?

all materials i purchased from bunnings except the knobs

paint:
- vivid white in semi-gloss by dulux
- safflower in low sheen by taubmans
- quickdry gloss by dulux (do not use on white!!)

knobs:
- white etching ceramic knob from zakkia