{"id":33583,"date":"2021-07-01T10:24:07","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T14:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/?p=33583"},"modified":"2021-07-01T10:24:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T14:24:11","slug":"mid-century-modern-painted-dresser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/mid-century-modern-painted-dresser\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid Century Modern Painted Dresser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few years ago I found a mid century modern dresser set on Facebook marketplace. I purchased two dressers and a two night stands for about $150. My girls love painted white furniture so I sprayed the set with my paint sprayer for their bedroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When we moved they didn’t need the dressers anymore. This dresser sat in my garage for almost a year. Last month I decided it would be perfect in my bathroom. I have a ridiculously large bathroom with tons of wasted space, so I decided to paint it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you know I LOVE to paint furniture<\/a> and I typically use chalk paint. Sometimes I want to get a project done and save a little money so I use whatever paint I have in the garage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prep for Painting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The dresser had small marks and nicks that needed repaired and I realized that white paint shows every imperfection. White furniture also gets too dirty in my house. I decided on dark blue, which is currently my favorite furniture and wall color. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When painting a piece of furniture I like to start outside and finish painting inside. Since I live in Florida, unless it’s mid February it’s usually too hot and humid for paint to dry quickly here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For this mid century modern dresser makeover I started by sanding down some of the white paint. I try not to sand my painting projects, because I’m lazy. However, however this dresser needed repairs before I could paint it again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also had a clear coat and I wasn’t sure if the new paint would adhere to the shiny surface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I also needed to repair one of the drawers. The corner of one drawer was chipped and peeling, probably from my recent move. I sanded first with a medium grit sandpaper<\/a> using my Dewalt sander. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I couldn’t find the exact model, but it’s similar to this one. <\/a>Then I used a fine grit sandpaper<\/a> to finish the job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After I sanded down the dresser and drawers I repaired the one damaged drawer. This dresser is pressboard covered in veneer which is a little harder to repair than solid wood in my opinion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I sanded down the damaged area as much as I could, then used DAP Plastic Wood Filler<\/a> to fill in the damaged area. They make a smaller container, but I couldn’t find it at my Home Depot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you fill in the damaged area you need to wait for the wood filler to completely dry. Once it’s dry, I sand down the area and repeat until it’s as smooth as I think I can get it. To be clear, I’m not a perfectionist and this piece is in my bathroom so I was more concerned with finishing the project rather than making it look perfect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once everything was sanded, I wiped the entire dresser down with a damp rag and moved it inside to paint. I prefer to use my paint sprayer when painting furniture. However it’s too hot right now to paint outside and drag the dresser in and out of my garage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Painting the Dresser<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I applied paint with a roller because it coats evenly and fast. My paint choice was Sherwin Williams Naval<\/a> because I had an entire gallon leftover from another project in my home. I don’t like buying paint for small furniture projects so I use what I have in the garage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Because I was using such a dark color it took three or four coats of paint to get the finish I wanted. It always bugs me when you can see light peeking through dark colors on walls or furniture so it’s worth taking the time to paint an extra coat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adding Clear Coat<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Once the dresser was painted I added a clear coat to protect the exterior of the dresser. I’m not nearly as hard on my furniture as the girls, but I knew having it in the bathroom would mean it would get a lot of items placed on it throughout the week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I purchased a can of Watco lacquer<\/a>, but after sharing it on Instagram an artist friend of mine said the spray can version<\/a> works much better. If you are using this lacquer make sure you are in a well ventilated area as it smells awful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I moved the dresser up to my bathroom before painting the clear coat and regretted it! The fumes were terrible and my whole bedroom smelled for several days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After I painted the first coat of lacquer on the dresser I let it dry for a full day. Then I applied a second coat. I should have waited another 12 hours for the next coat of lacquer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add Hardware<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The last step in the project was to add handles. The original mid century modern dresser did not have drawer pulls. I thought it would add a nice touch and make it a bit more modern looking. Looking back on this project I should have added legs as well. The dresser is very short and legs would have brought it up to a standard height. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m not a fan of installing hardware on anything. However Amazon is my go-to for hardware<\/a> these days. They have a huge selection, you can purchase it in bulk and the prices are great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I inevitably, no matter how many times I measure and mark, install the first pull crooked. It’s so frustrating! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since the pulls needed two holes to be drilled in the drawers I made a template out of parchment paper. Cardboard is a better option, but I didn’t have any boxes to cut up so I used paper. I traced the outline of the drawer and then measured to the center. Since each pull is three inches I marked 1.5 inches each way from the center point of the drawer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The problem with paper is that it didn’t lay flat on the drawer when I was attempting to drill. It shifted which is why my first pull is slightly crooked. However creating any template is better than measuring and marking every time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t forget to also mark from the top and the bottom. I wanted the pulls to be in the center of the drawer. Depending on the style you might want them a little higher than the center line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once all the hardware was installed, I vacuumed out the drawers and put the drawers in the dresser. Overall I’m happy with how it turned out and it’s nice to have extra storage in my bathroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Painted Mid Century Modern Dresser<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I spent $12 on the drawer pulls and another $5 on the roller brushes. The lacquer was $13 and the wood repair was about $5. I can reuse the rollers, lacquer and wood repair on other projects, but the total cost for this makeover was $36. $36 for a new looking dresser is definitely worth it! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago I found a mid century modern dresser set on Facebook marketplace. I purchased two dressers and a two night stands for about $150. My girls love painted white furniture so I sprayed the set with my paint sprayer for their bedroom. When we moved they didn’t need the dressers anymore. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-diy","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nMid Century Modern Painted Dresser - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This mid century modern dresser was updated with new drawer pulls and Sherwin Williams Naval paint. It looks like a brand new piece of furniture.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/mid-century-modern-painted-dresser\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mid Century Modern Painted Dresser - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This mid century modern dresser was updated with new drawer pulls and Sherwin Williams Naval paint. It looks like a brand new piece of furniture.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/mid-century-modern-painted-dresser\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheHappyHousewife\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-01T14:24:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-01T14:24:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/files\/2021\/06\/mid-century-modern-painted-furniture.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"733\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tonihanderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tonihanderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Toni Herrbach\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\">\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33583"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33633,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33583\/revisions\/33633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}