Charlie Brown Yall!

 Here he is!  I've decided I will never do a crazy detailed piece again.  These flat dressers are just too easy! Who am I kidding.. I love details.  This was a nice change though!

Here is the before from craigslist - I was in too much of a hurry to snap a before shot:

I began by sanding the dresser with my NEW Bosch random orbital sander (if you don't have one, I would highly recommend it! I love it!)

Then I spray paint primed it with Valspar primer.  I did a sloppy job because it was late at night and I was impatient, so the next day after I bought my sander I smoothed it all out and got it ready for the paint.

Originally I wanted to paint the entire piece yellow with white stripes, but while I was sanding after the coat of primer I saw this:

I kinda liked it.  So I decided to paint the top white then distress it.

After I painted the yellow (Valspar's Summer Wish) on the bottom portion I let it dry so I could tape off the stripes.  I just eyeballed it.  No meticulous measuring.  You know me, I want it easy and imperfect!

If you look closely you'll see that the tape is uneven and sloppy.  The edges are jagged.  I just wanted to get the design on real quick.  Then I went back with my exacto knife and carefully cut off the excess of tape.  Here you can see it nice and even.

Looking back I probably should have started painting white on the second stripe, but oh well.  Here he is mid-process and after I peeled off the tape.  I only did one coat of white on the front and top.

I let it dry overnight then took my sander to it.  Again, I wish I had bought one of these much sooner! They're great.  It sands so evenly and doesn't peel the latex paint like it does when I hand sand.  I'm in love.  I heavily distressed the top, then sanded the drawers enough to look worn.  I sanded the sides real good too.

I took this picture to show how the yellow darkened up a little bit when I sanded it.  I don't know why it does this, but I'm glad it did.  The yellow was just a tiny bit too pastel for me.  I don't think you can really tell in this photo though... the difference is very subtle. The drawer on the bottom is the sanded one.

I then gave the entire piece a nice coat of wax.

Ladies and gentlemen - Charlie Brown, Katie style.

For some reason the yellow looks kinda like Grey Poupon.  It is much brighter in real life.  This almost looks like it has brown undertones.  I don't know why, but furniture just does not photograph well in my living room.  It was sprinkling here today too, so the gloomy weather doesn't help.

I love the way the top turned out!  It looks old and worn, but still kinda clean since I didn't have to use any glaze.  Here it is with my current decor on it.  This will all change with time.  It doesn't really fit the look of the new dresser.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies!!

Cheers!

Linking to these parties!
Sisters of the Wild West