Cottage Dresser: Before & After

An old dresser got a time worn look with Chalk Paint®. See this fun cottage dresser before & after.

Last week, I shared our design plans for John’s Teen Bedroom Makeover. Click here to read them. I gave you a teeny tiny peek at his room so far.

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Prior to swapping rooms around I had this beautiful wallpaper hung in what was my office / guest room. I told John this wallpaper had to stay because it was $$$$ – the paper and installation. He said that he liked the paper so that wouldn’t be a problem.

Here is the mood board I created for his room:

John and Luke are building a parsons style desk which I will paint the same white but with a gloss finish. We decided to paint his current dresser. I’m not sure if you remember but 9 years ago I first painted this piece, it was one of my very first painting projects. It’s actually my childhood dresser and from Ethan Allen so is such a solid piece.

Here’s how the dresser was looking in John and Conor’s old bedroom:

With the wallpaper the union flag just looked too much and in your face. John wanted something more grown up and something with a found look. Here’s what we came up with:

Cottage Dresser: Before & After

I started prepping the dresser by sanding down the front a bit. Some of the stripes were raised up with layers and layers of paint. I cleaned the sanding dust off and washed the whole piece with TSP.

Then I did a base coat of Annie Sloan’s Paris Grey. It’s a lovely warm gray. My friend Nancy Chace, owner of Sea Rose Cottage, where I buy all my Chalk Paint® supplies, recommended undercoating with gray to give a uniform surface for the white.

Once dry, I followed up with several coats of Pure White.

You can see more about Annie Sloan’s neutral paint colors here.

For the knobs, I rubbed on several coats of clear shellac before painting to prevent bleed through.

Once dry, I got to distressing. I put the drawers back in the dresser so I could see how it would look once the dresser was finished. I focused on high points, knobs, and around the drawers. I used a mixture of 120, 200, and 400 grit sandpaper to make it smooth.

John wanted it heavily distressed in parts so I pulled the palm sander out to sand more.

In some areas I went back in and stippled more paint on top to give texture.

To seal it I used Annie Sloan’s clear wax. I like to use a wax brush to apply the wax and then I use cheesecloth to wipe excess wax. I applied two coats of wax and buffed the next day with a siff brush.

I used John’s vintage camera collection and books to style it.

John is so happy with his dresser and how his room is coming out so far.

Next up we’ll be working on the desk.

Shop the Look

I can’t wait to hear what you guys think of his dresser.

Finally, if you enjoyed this post you may want to pick up a copy of my eBook, 150 pages of tutorials and tips!