An Update on the Summer To Do List

In a moment of transparency, I will tell you that we have misplaced our camera cord (finally located today in C's work bag). So please pardon our hiatus, we have some great posts coming soon about our most recent Second Saturday and our Sunday brunch at Cafe Atchafalaya.

photo from nomenu.com

However, thanks to my iphone I was able to document some house projects to keep it fresh. As you saw here, I have a few projects I would like to complete before returning to work in late July. Since beginning my break on Monday, I have completed the dresser (almost) and spray painted a few odds and ends. I love how much a coat of spray paint can transform almost anything. I wish I had shot the before photos, but these two objects from our bathroom are now coated in lime green:

This is a magazine rack I got from a friend who was moving out of town two years ago. The before was brass and dingy. 

This plastic tray came from another moving friend. It had a very unfortunate looking rooster on it, so I was glad to paint over that!

On to the dresser. This is my first destressed painting project and I got the how to from HGTV. I chose the dresser in our bedroom (given to me by another moving friend) because the wood hasn't been well cared for and although I've heard you shouldn't paint over exposed wood, I needed something brighter in the bedroom.

Before: 

So here's how the process went. First I removed all the drawer pulls and spray painted them black.

Then, I sanded the whole dresser down, which wasn't too bad because there wasn't much of a seal left.

After sanding it down I gave it two coats of white primer. Then I painted two coats of bumble bee yellow. I let all this dry over night. And this morning I painted two coats of cobalt blue.

After letting the blue dry for a couple of hours I began the process of destressing. As per my source, I rubbed candle wax on key spots before painting over the yellow with blue. I used steel wool to take off the blue paint in key areas that would often appear worn by time (i.e. corners, edges. places where hands would most often fall). I found that the steel wool worked well on edges and corners but not so well on the flat surfaces. Here I used sand paper, lightly. The final step was to rub a seal over the entire piece and all the drawers.

Tomorrow I'll reattach all the drawer pulls and move it back in place. I want to give it a full 24 hours to dry. Photos of the finished piece to come.