Repainting an Old White Dresser; Awesome Craig’s List Find

Erin at 3 Meadow Lake Cottage has made a wonderful change to an old white dresser.


FINALLY finished the rehab project on my Craigslist dresser.
It was hard work.
But it only took me 3 months 🙂

Here’s a reminder of how it looked when I bought it…


It was in such sad shape: peeling paint, missing knobs, red stains from an unknown substance, and drawers that didn’t work. 

But it had great bones. 

So I scraped
and scraped
and scraped.

Then I sanded
and sanded
and sanded.

  
Then I painted two coats of primer and three coats of semi-gloss white paint on it.


I managed to fix almost all of the drawers glides by using a screw driver to some WD-40.
I only had to replace one of the glides because it was beyond repair. 
Thank goodness because they run about $5.00/each for new glides!

After scrubbing the heck out of the insides of the drawers to get them clean, 
I added some contact paper {from Target} to the bottoms to make them look super crisp and clean.


I picked out and ordered some classic oil rubbed bronze knobs and handles off of Ebay 
{Ebay has GREAT deals on cabinet hardware if you are ever in the market for some!}.

I chose hardware that looks really simple and classic since there are a lot of details on the dresser itself.

And after ALL of that hard work, here is how the dresser turned out…


Here is a before and after for comparison…



Oh and here’s my old piece-o-junk that it replaced…

 

Much better, don’t ya think??
{Hopefully I can get someone to buy that old thing!}


I am so in love with how it turned out.
Thank goodness I didn’t toss in the towel half way through the project.
In the future, however, if I see a piece of furniture that needs massive rehab like this one did, 

I probably will run the other direction!

Here’s the cost breakdown:
Dresser: $20
Stripping Supplies: $36
Paint Supplies: $37
Knobs/Pulls: $20 {included shipping}
Contact Paper: $5
Drawer Glide: $5
TOTAL: $123

My new dresser kinda reminds me of the one of been drooling over at Pottery Barn… 

 Except that one is priced at $1,199.

I think I like mine better anyways.


Wow I can’t believe the savings!  Wait, I can!  
Great job on the white dresser rehab!

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14 Comments

  1. >It looks very much like the Pottery Barn dresser!
    So much infact, I thought there was one last
    picture of your refinished one! Beautiful job!

    Jane
    Flora Doora

  2. >I've got to be totally honest. I like the dresser you refinished better than the Pottery Barn one….

    Great job!

  3. >I think your dresser looks better than the PB one. Much more character. Thanks for sharing.
    Traci

  4. >Your dresser looks A-MA-ZING! Way to go! Thanks for the inspiration and where to buy good deals on hardware. 🙂

  5. >This is certainly beautiful, but part of me would like to see a light glaze over the white paint to bring out all those pretty dimensional details on the top drawers. Still, it's an improvement over what it used to be!

  6. >Wow you've done a terrific job! It really was in a sorry state of affairs to begin with. It looks gorgeous now, and soooo expensive.
    Megs 🙂