My vintage furniture refinishing began with this exact DIY project where I took a 1950's mid-century modern, blonde colored dresser set, fixed up their flaws, gave them a new look with furniture paint, added some drawer inserts and shined up all their hardware like brand new! For today's blog I will share step by step how I go about tackling a DIY vintage furniture makeover such as this one and why I chose to paint over them rather than keep them in their original state.
I very excitedly scored this 1950's blonde dresser set off a lady on marketplace who had kept these pieces around in her family since she was a young girl. She did plan to makeover these dressers herself, yet never found the time in life to do so, so she was ready to part with them! I believe I purchased this set for $80 which I thought was a score at $40 each for my first 2 pieces of vintage furniture to flip. I already knew I wanted to create a clean, white with gold accent piece with whatever I found out there, so this set being a blonde color originally, was perfect for just that.
As this was my first learning project, I spent what most furniture flippers would describe as a total loss in profit amount of time on this makeover, but dang was I happy every moment of it. I ended up selling the dresser set on marketplace for a great price to a lovely individual who absolutely loved them and was looking for dressers just like these ones. This was a new high I had discovered. Someone out there thought my creation was good enough to be in their home, and I even made a few bucks off it, how amazing!
This was also my first experience using proper furniture paint and accessories which I discovered through the magical world of YouTube, Dixie Belle Paint. My closest store that sold their products was a 45 minute drive from where I lived, but I was totally convinced that this brand was going to be my jam, and I've made that drive multiple times for different projects since.
I started with a few core Dixie Belle paint products such as their Boss primer, Gator Hide top coat, gold Gilding Wax and of course their "Scarlet" furniture paint brush. I also need to mention, I started this project with just an 8oz jar of their paint in the color "Fluff", and if it wasn't for a boo boo I made and needed extra paint to fix, I could have completed both pieces with that small jar of paint. This product goes a long way if applied properly!
Why did I decide to paint over these vintage pieces?
When you really look at a vintage piece of furniture, there are a few obvious reasons why you should feel okay about painting over it. It mostly comes down to the material used to create the piece, the condition it is in and if it has a desirable finish. These 2 pieces were covered in a shiny, thin veneer which is undesirable, plus the veneer did have some areas of damage and the color was just not giving these pieces the potential they deserved.
Read more about how I choose how to makeover a vintage piece of furniture by visiting my blog page on whether "to paint, or not to paint".
9 Steps to makeover a vintage dresser set using furniture paint
Step 1: Asses your piece, remove the hardware, make a plan of attack, and source the products you may need. Are you changing the handles? What color will you go? What sheen of finish do you want it to have?
Step 2: Very Important! Clean your piece thoroughly. Vacuum out the dust and cobwebs, use a degreasing cleaner all over the surfaces and allow to fully dry.
Step 3 :Take the time to make repairs to your piece or perhaps remove details you don't want. You may need to fill in scratches, gouges or maybe a router design on the drawer fronts because you want a smooth finish instead.
Step 4 : Sanding. Once your filler is dry, sand those areas down until flush with the rest of the surfaces, then scuff sand the remaining surfaces of your piece. You want to use a higher grit sandpaper such as 120-220 in order to leave a slight scuff behind. This will allow your primer and paint to adhere the best it can and will make sure your paint won't scratch off the first time you put some decor on it.
Step 5: Primer. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Just like scuff sanding, a primer will allow your paint to adhere to the piece much better with than without one as well as offer more strength to your finish. I like to do 2 coats of primer, sanding in between with 220-400 grit sandpaper.
Quick tip: The type of primer will depend on what you need to cover up as well. For example, maybe your piece has bad stains on it therefore you may want to choose a stain blocking primer
Step 6: Once dry, give your primer a quick sand with 220-400 grit sandpaper. This will gently knock of roughness and leave the piece super smooth. Wipe down the remaining dust off the piece with a tack cloth or a microfiber cloth works too.
Step 7: It's time to paint! This is a generic explanation as there are many paints on the market to choose from, and they may all have different techniques to follow. Make sure you read the instructions on your chosen paint brand, and get painting.
Step 8: Once your first coat is dry, go ahead and give it another quick sand down with the 400 grit sandpaper, reason is the same. The smoother the better. Repeat after each coat of paint you desire to add.
Step 9: Top coat! This too is dependant on the brand and product, so again read the instructions first. After your top coat(s) are dry, you got it, one more smooth down to go to give your new piece its final finish. Pop your hardware back on and you're finished!
Bonus Step: Try a finale coat of wood wax or furniture oil to really shine up your piece.
Although I did follow the above steps...
Every piece is a different story with their own challenges whether it be damage that needs repair or you want to remove an element that is dating the piece and so on. For these 2 pieces, I did a couple extra detail changes to achieve the look I was going for.
Here are the unique issues I found or details I added
Damage to the edge banding on the top pieces. Before I had a collection of new edge banding, I simply filled the voids with wood filler, sanded the patches smooth, and primed them well before painting
Legs still had the original blonde color on them. I simply sanded them down to the bare wood underneath the finish, and sealed them with a top coat.
The horizontal and vertical router lines were also in the original blonde color. I painted inside every line with gold gilding wax so up close, they were actually shiny and gold
The separating ledges between the sets of drawers were protruding, so instead of painting them white, I sanded them down to bare wood for an added detail
The handles and hardware were in great condition, so I added a coat of gold gilding wax to help them shine again
The drawer insides were bare wood and boring, so I added a geometric peel and stick paper to them for a punch of fun
Thank you for checking out another DIY vintage furniture makeover! I hope you took away at least one tip from my blog today.
-Ol' Bettie DIY
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