Style: Painted and Stained Chest Makeover

Finished Product!  My $16 chest.

Last year when I went to the local County offices to vote, I had a conversation with a man who had a load of old furniture strapped to the back of his truck on the way to the Goodwill.  I saw a chest of drawers and liked its lines. I had been looking for something to sit in my entry hall and wanted a painted chest.  I talked the guy out of the chest and loaded it in the SUV. Thank goodness I had that vehicle at the time or this post wouldn't be happening.

Masked off for painting.

This chest was just an inexpensive, likely late '40's or '50's mass produced three drawer chest.  Cobwebbed and scratched, I cleaned it, rubbed it with Old English Scratch Cover and it sat in the foyer for months. 

One coat of white satin finish spray paint.

Last weekend I decided to work on it.  I removed the hardware and drawers, sanded the top and drawer fronts until they were very smooth.  I lightly sanded the sides and front of the chest to take paint.

Another light coat and we are almost done!

I'd been reading about spray painting furniture and got some satin finish white paint. I used a light Pecan poly and stain combined in one and after three coats of stain and poly on the top and drawer fronts (you can re-coat after only an hour with the fast-drying product) we were done.  I let it sit for 48 hours to cure and then, it was done.

Just about finished ... one more coat!

Not bad for a few hours work and $16 in supplies!  So I decided it's true: you CAN repurpose furniture quite easily.  I think next I am going to paint my bed frame and night stands!  Stay tuned!

I stained the drawer fronts next to each other and one right after the other to make sure I got the right amount of stain to be consistent.  It worked out well!