Farmhouse Style Dresser!

Turning this less than loved antique dresser into a Farmhouse Style Dresser was a fun and easy project.  I was able to paint and seal the entire dresser in a matter of a few hours.  What made this project so easy and quick was the Old Fashioned Milk Paint.

Old Fashioned Milk Paint is truly a “green paint” and is becoming widely used because it contains only ingredients that are all-natural and will not harm the environment.  I don’t like to use chemicals and harsh paints since I paint furniture all the time, less exposure to me and the environment.  

I found this beauty at a neighborhood garage sale.  She is pretty neglected and had some missing moulding on one of the drawers.  

 

I knew I could easily fix the moulding by using embossing creme.  

I placed tape on each side of the missing moulding piece and placed some walnut embossing cream(Maison Blanche Glacage) in the same form as the moulding piece on the other side.   I let the embossing creme dry for a few days to make sure it was completely set.  I love using embossing creme in the walnut color as I can distress the moulding and you won’t notice the repair since it is the same base color as the dresser.  

Once the moulding repair was completely dry, I used a small Dremel tool to sand the repair into shape.  This is how it looked before sanding.  

No one will notice the slight difference in the moulding.   

For this farmhouse style dresser, I used snow white on the base of the dresser and a 50/50 mix of driftwood and light cream for the drawers.  I decided I wanted the dresser to have a chippy and heavily distressed look to add to the Farmhouse Fun Theme for the Fab Flippin Contest.  

I used the same colors on the original handles as I used for the dresser.  I applied 2 thick coats of the driftwood color mix, sealed with the Safecoat AcriGlaze in matte, and dry brushed on a coat of snow white.  This gave the perfect color contrast on the drawers and they have an aged chippy built up paint look to make them look very old with years of paint on them.  

The technique I used to get this look was fun and easy.  It was fun because I applied a messy first coat to the dresser and the drawers.  Once the first coat was dry, I sanded it down with and electric hand sander to have the wood exposed in various places.  The beauty of the milk paint is it sands and distresses so easily and it becomes so smooth after sanding.  I applied a second quick and messy coat over the first one and let dry.  This covered up some of the exposed wood with a light coat giving it that “layers of aged paint look”.   I also sanded down the second coat for a nice smooth finish.   I noticed after the first coat of paint, that I was getting some areas of bleed through, so I sealed the entire piece with a clear wax to help block the bleed through.  In my experience, an oil based sealer helps block the bleed through.  

I love how this piece turned out and it makes me want to have my whole house filled with this chippy farmhouse style!   

Please stop over to see the other great projects that were completed by the Fab Furniture Flippin Contest contestants.  You can see them over at Evey’s Creations or Anastasia Vintage.  If you are interested in joining the contest, please send an email to [email protected].