White Distressed Dresser Makeover

In this post I will show you how I took this free dresser and gave it a white distressed makeover!

White laundry bag hanging on a hook.

I’ve been on vacation with my family this week in Hawaii. Jennifer from Town n Country Living posted on Monday. Today I have Krista (a fellow BC girl!) guest posting today. Hugs 😉 Jamie

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Hello readers of So Much Better With Age! I’m Krista from The Happy Housie and I am so excited to be here today to share this white chalky painted dresser makeover that I recently did as part of updating our Master Bedroom.
For the second time.
In three years.

Brown older looking dresser with mirror and lamp on it.
80's brown dresser.

As I mentioned before, I spend most of my bloggy time over at The Happy Housie. I called my blog this because I’m a bit of a “housie”… (think foodie but for houses). I love all things related to houses: decorating, DIY, organizing, crafting, gardening, and more. I love sharing DIY projects and ideas. Also I especially love finding old pieces and fixing them up to make them vibrant and beautiful again…like this dresser project that I am sharing with you today.
This dresser was free!! I love free.
For the original makeover, I have to give complete credit to my husband. He sanded the top and refinished it and painted the whole piece. He did a great job on it. It looked much better then it had started out.

I don’t have any pictures of the original BEFORE… But before we had painted the hubs gave it a black and wood makeover, it started out more like this…but perhaps a little darker and shinier:

Via

Primer paint on dresser with brushes.
Can of Country Chic paint, with brush on top of it.
Brushing the paint on the dresser.

But after a few years of living with the black, I was ready for a change. It seems I have been gradually painting all the dark furniture in our house white… or at least bright.
I started off by giving the whole piece a thorough wipe down. I don’t want to talk about how dusty it got in the hidden parts under the drawers. Yuck.
Because he had used oil paint to refinish it originally, I primed it with some really adherent Zinsser primer.

And then used the most beautiful shade of Country Chic chalk based paint in white: it is called Simplicity and the name totally does it justice.

Because I was doing this project outdoors in the summer weather it dried pretty quickly. Rather then distress it with a wet cloth, as I often do, I decided to try out my little palm sander. I figured that would allow me to show through to some of the black underneath but it would also take it right down to the original wood in spots. And it sure did. I had to be careful not to take off tooooo much with it – but I am happy with how chunky the distressing turned out for this piece.

White distressed dresser in room.
Open can of furniture wax.
Buffing the wax from the dresser.
White distressed dresser with black pull knobs.
White dresser in bedroom with lamps and vase on it.
Picture of a bird above dresser.
Bird cage above dresser.
Colorful flower pictures hanging beside dresser.
Wooden stool beside dresser.


Then I waxed it with the clear natural wax. It gave it such a beautiful sheen and I love knowing that the surface on top is more protected from all those little scuffing dangers that lurk around our bedroom…

Once it sat for a bit I buffed it all dry with a clean, lint-free cloth…

Done!

So much fresher and brighter in our bedroom…
I first revealed this when I shared our Master Bedroom paint refresh early last fall.
I’ve been slowly working away at freshening up our bedroom over the past few months…just a few more changes and it should be good. For the time being.


Thank you so much to Jamie for having me here today! I would love to have you come on by The Happy Housie for a visit! I have a few other projects you may be interested in!

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14 Comments

  1. I love this look but sadly hubby doesn’t, so I’ll have to make do admiring yours instead! It’s gorgeous.

  2. Love this dresser. I have the dresser that was a part of the nursery furniture when we had our boys (oldest is now 34yrs old). It has seen some rough times and I would like to do this on it. I have never painted any furniture other than a open bookcase. What or how do you treat the sides of the drawers? Thank you for sharing your beautiful project.

    1. Hi Tawn! I didn’t paint the sides of the drawers or the insides of the drawers at all- they were still in pretty decent shape. I think you could paint yours if they are really rough, and even use some pretty contact paper or wallpaper to line the bottom of the drawers. If you do paint the sides of the drawers (that won’t be seen) I probably wouldn’t worry about distressing them too much- they will likely distress themselves in time with use. Good luck with your project!

  3. Jamie, I love the look of this dresser. I would like to know how you treat the insides and the sides of the drawers. I have only painted an open bookcase. I have the dresser that was a part of the nursery set that we purchased when we were expecting our oldest son (he is now 34). Having survive two boys, it is looking rather “rough” and I would love to try my hand at it. Thank you for any help you can give me and for sharing your lovely home.

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