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DIY

OMBRE DRESSER DIY

November 8, 2020

What started out as a necessity as a cash strapped college grad moving to a new town for graduate school has become a hobby over the years: upcycling Goodwill furniture finds. I can easily say that every single clothes dresser in our house has been thrifted from a local Goodwill and at this point that is quite a few of them considering we have three kiddos!

I’ve outlined a few steps below of how I select my thrifted pieces and a quick how-to on this colorful dresser which added the perfect pop of color to our youngest daughter’s nursery.

Pick Your Piece

Peruse local thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales, and Goodwills for solid pieces of furniture that are in need of some elbow grease and a little imagination.
Do open drawers, check backing, and inspect legs to ensure the structural integrity of the piece.
Don’t pick laminated furniture or items made from particleboard. These aren’t absolutely off the table, but they can limit what type of modifications can be done based upon the material if not made from real wood.
Be sure to check for water damage especially on laminate/particleboard as this will cause a bubbling effect on the surface of the furniture.
Always opt for real wood constructed pieces. They can withstand the test of time and lend themselves to greater flexibility and creativity in the refinishing process. You can choose to sand down to a natural wood finish and stain or simply sand and repaint.

Prep Your Piece

Assess the work and tools needed:

The effort of this step is very dependent upon what condition your thrifted or existing dresser is in and what finishes you select for the final product.
For the purposes of this “how-to” you can see that the dresser I bought was bland, but in decent condition. These instructions will be for re-painting an old painted dresser.

Sand all painted surfaces:

Remove drawers and hardware.
Use sand paper with a low number and heavier grit to knock off most of the paint and then finish with a higher number, finer grit sand paper.
Quick lesson on sand paper: It is normally categorized into ranges of numbers starting with 20 (extra coarse) up to 600 (super fine). The majority of use on furniture with a normal sander or by hand sanding for the purposes of refinishing furniture is to start with an 80 grit and smooth out with 120-160 grit.
If simply repainting, all of paint does not need to be sanded off, but the surface does need to be lightly sanded and smoothed so that paint will adhere well to the surface.
Patch any holes or deep scratches with wood filler and allow to dry before gently sanding smooth to match the same level as the surface.

Wipe down excess dust

Take a tack cloth (these are better than any other since they are specially formulated to be lint and residue free) and wipe all surfaces that will be painted.
On occasion and in a pinch, I have used a wet wash cloth, but have had to be careful to check for lint and allow time to dry.

Paint Your Piece

For the first time in the history of all of my DIY projects, I did not buy any paint for this project. I used a hodge podge of leftover colors from other projects.
I chose to spray paint the dresser with Rustoleum’s Painter’s Touch 2X in Ivory Bisque. This is also the same color as the top drawer.
On the other drawers, I used Rustoleum’s Painter’s Touch 2X Candy Pink, Sweet Pea, Vintage Blush, and Krylon Colormaster Ballet Slipper Pink.
For first time users of spray paint, spray lightly and multiple coats really are better. Take it from someone who has tried to rush one too many times and has gone a little heavy handed with the spray paint only to have the paint drip and run. This will put you back in the sanding phase of the project—after the paint dries of course.

Replace Hardware and Enjoy

After the several coats of paint have thoroughly dried, it is time to replace the hardware.
Hardware is all about personal aesthetic and chosen functionality. I tend to work on pieces that I am restoring to a specific style and I often try to salvage the existing hardware–especially if it is original to the piece.
I was able to find these gold cylindrical knobs at Hobby Lobby on sale. Here is a similar set on Amazon: Gold Knob Hardware
This hardware has held up beautifully to toddler hands pulling and yanking on drawers. Normally, I stick to Lowe’s or Home Depot for cabinet hardware selections, but Hobby Lobby came through with a fun eclectic selection that matched the playful paint colors I selected for this project.

DIY

Jenny Lind Twin Refurb

August 23, 2020

Jenny Lind beds are making a comeback–a two hundred year revival in the making, but not too much of a surprise considering their history of style at an affordable price point. More commonly, the genre is considered spool-turned or spindle furniture and became one of the first mass produced types of furniture available at the turn of the 19th century. Commonly referred to as “Jenny Lind” this furniture was popularized by the Swedish opera singer Johanna Maria Lind who is claimed to have slept in one of these beds during her American tour with the P.T. Barnum Circus. Don’t be like me and think Jenny Lind was a furniture designer like the Stickley Brothers of the Arts and Crafts Era.

Personally, I love the spindle furniture style and have been fortunate to find some pieces to add to our home. I was given a beautiful Jenny Lind full bed from my mother-in-law that was Ben’s when he was younger that I refreshed and painted when Lily graduated from a toddler bed to a real bed. The curved spindles give the perfect feminine touch for a little girl’s room.

When we decided to move and buy a new house, I knew I wanted the guest room to have twin beds. Luckily, I found two matching twin beds on Facebook marketplace in varying conditions. One bed had normal scuffs and scratches that I knew could be easily covered with paint and the other had been kept in a barn and sustained significant damage that threatened the structural integrity of the bed. Of course like any purchase sight unseen, I did not realize the true condition of the bed until it was time to pick it up. Thankfully, I only paid $40 for the bed in rough condition which is good because it needed more work than most of our normal projects.

Step 1: Structural Repair

For the bed that was damaged, we used a combination of wood glue, tie plates, and corner braces to ensure that the headboard and footboards were structurally secure (think toddlers jumping on the bed as the litmus test here) prior to priming. My joke with Ben was that this bed has more hardware than the tin man! Thankfully, between the location of the hardware and the paint, it does not impact the aesthetic of the bed–you can’t tell between the two which one required the significant amount of work.

Step 2: Sanding and Paint Preparation

After sanding for what felt like hours—lots of hand sanding on those spindles with all the tiny curves and crevices. I opted to use a combination of heavy grit (80) sand paper to knock off the flaking old paint and fine grit 220 sanding blocks to finish to make sure the wood surface was smooth and ready to be painted. The bed that was in relatively good shape needed to be sanded in a similar fashion to knock off a varnish and “rough up” the surface enough for paint to adhere well. I cleaned all the residue and dust from sanding off prior to painting with primer. Although we do have a paint sprayer and that would have expedited the process significantly, I chose to hand paint these two beds (the paint sprayer is still packed somewhere in the garage).

Step 3: Paint

Once the sanding was complete and the gaps in the wood were filled and smoothed down, we primed the beds with Kilz All-Purpose Interior White Primer. I learned from my first experience spray painting a Jenny Lind bed that I needed to use a primer beforehand and a heavier duty paint to withstand the rough and tumble nature of the crew of toddlers that live in our house. Lily’s bed has numerous chips of paint missing and will be going through a re-painting process soon. I chose to use Door and Trim paint in high gloss white for its durable and wipeable finish. Even with the primer it took several coats of paint to cover the wood and hardware. We’re normally a Valspar family or Sherwin Williams paint buyers–not Glidden, but I bought the materials for this project when the COVID-19 pandemic began so I limited myself to what was available at the local Walmart where I also happened to be buying my groceries. This is a latex paint–I would have preferred an oil-based paint. They tend to be thicker, better at filling small imperfections, and naturally more resistant to wear and tear than water-based products like latex. However, this latex paint was quick to use (short drying time), emitted low fumes, and should still remain chip resistant for the long run.

Step 4: Enjoy

Once you’ve got your head and footboards sanded, painted, and dried, they are ready to use hook on bed rails and we cut DIY bed slats from 1×4 lumber. These pieces can be bought in 8′ to 16′ pieces at Lowes (the longer, the cheaper per linear foot) and you can cut to size. Throw your mattress and bedding on and you’re ready to take a well deserved nap!