Making The Curvy Straight and Rub'nBuff Rave [Dresser Makeover]

When my husband gets a text that says "Does your wife want this dresser taking up precious space in our garage?" he knows he doesn't even have to ask me. That'd be like asking the one thousand pound sisters if they want ice cream.

First thing I did was remove the ugly pulls and sand the top down to bare wood.

Sometimes curvy is good. 

But nah.... not for this guy.

I've seen where people rebuild a new base for the dresser to make the lines straight. 

But nah.... ain't got time for that.

Just needed a quick chop-chop!

Mid Century Modern is "it" right now. And Mid Century Modern is loads of lines. Straight lines.

This dresser may not be MCM, but we're going to update him to a new level of sophistication.

I used a square, drew my lines, and cut off the curves with a scroll saw.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Sorry, no pics of the paint process, but I used a really good primer and then used my new paint sprayer (piece of junk from China if you really wanna know, but it does the trick) with a flat black.

Now the pulls. I found three for the top in my stash and four matchers for the bottom. Unfortunately I needed different sizes and that was not easy, hence why the top differs from the bottom. Sorry OCD people. 

Enter Rub'nBuff, which is pretty much magic. Takes old dingy looking metal and makes it gorgeous in seconds. It's one of those things I've heard about for years. Decades. But since I tend to use products I find in the free box at estate sales... it's not something I've come across therefore have never possessed!

Let me tell you, I'm highly annoyed at my little self for not trying this sooner. You can just rub it on with a rag or because these pulls had lots of grooves, an old toothbrush worked well. My friend said she uses a makeup brush.

The bare wood got a couple coats of polyurethane, which changed the color of the wood more than I would have liked, rats, but I'm not about to take it off and start over. It ain't what it ain't. (My friend and I were discussing how we're over the saying "it is what it is"...so it ain't what it ain't.)

Pretty paper in the top drawers.....

And now if you'd please share the love by pinning this image on Pinterest I would be ecstatic.

Thank you!!

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Beachy Vibe Dresser

My mother dear is the best. She sees little dressers like this for a few dollars at a garage sale and she snags them for me, even though she has to bring it 500 miles to get to me! :) Maybe it's her excuse to see the grandkids.  Maybe.

When I stashed all of these wood dowels upstairs in my workshop, I had no idea I would end up using them in so many different ways - especially for drawer pulls!

I had to break one of my rules about "buying new" because I really wanted to try using these metal "two hole straps". What on earth, I was in Lowes looking everywhere for these, I didn't know to say "Hey sir, can you tell me where the Two-Hole Straps are? Something tells me Mr. Lowes Dude wouldn't even know what I was talking about. It took lots of aisle wandering before I found them.

I used some wood glue on the back of the dowels too, because some of the clamps ended up a little loosey-goosey and I didn't want them sliding out so big brother could use them on a little sibling. Just kidding. I don't care.That's what makes younger siblings so tough. Uhhh... just kidding again.

I found a piece of wood trim and cut it to fit across the bottom. I keep every piece of wood - just in case! And there's always eventually a "just in case!" I mean if I have the room (sheds and barns).... why not hoard all the things? It's what keeps me out of the hardware stores!

I used different shades of grays and blues, mixing them together and adding tans... The stencil on the top drawer was just one of those cheap all-over stencils you get in the big packs at Walmart. The annoying ones that you have to punch out the whole design and not rip any while you're at it since they're made out of tagboard. It's worth it though, they're cheap and I use them a lot!

So I loved how it turned out, but it didn't sell at my huge two-day barn sale. It was still in my barn a few weeks ago when one of my sweet Airbnb guests asked if she could take a peek inside the big old building. She spotted this and thought her daughter would love it. She packed it into the back of her little Prius and drove it 530 miles home, where her daughter welcomed it with open arms. Yay!

Like it? Pin it! Please and thank you!! :)

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Tinting Green Paint Olive & An Antique Dresser Makeover

If you could describe this "before" in one word, what would it be?

Kitschy perhaps?

Once I started sanding the paint off, I actually felt some pangs of guilt! At one time, someone had used their artistic talents and hand painted those flowers on the drawer fronts. So unappreciated now, and I felt some remorse for removing all that effort with my orbital sander.

I love my Ryobi orbital by the way. I accidently bought sandnet once while in Home Depot and have been using it every since. I still use conventional sandpaper, but for my big jobs I use this for the first tough layer. It definitely has a longer life than the regular stuff! You can pull it off, shake it out, put it back on, and keep at it.

In typical Kammy style, I mixed my own paint color.  But here's a trick for ya!

I'd like to give you a second to see if you can guess what color you add to green to make the shade more "olive-y".

Brown? Wrong. Gray? Wrong. 

If you have a green paint that you would like to tint to be more of an "olive", "army" or "sage" green, you add some red! Trust me, it works! I think for this one I started with a John Deere green, added some dark gray, and little tan perhaps and the magical ingredient - RED barn paint! Can't remember the combo for sure, but don't be afraid to stir in that barn red to get the most beautiful tints of the trendy green colors!

My mother in law gave me a gift card for Hobby Lobby awhile back. I was ecstatic. Pick out ANYTHING IN THE STORE?! The decisions seem endless and overwhelming. I rarely buy any decor new. And I most certainly never buy new pulls for my refurbished furniture! But there was a great choice of boho pulls that I just couldn't resist.

It was equally hard to decide what to put new said pulls on... but I decided they looked great with this green and would do the trick on this beautiful dresser!

I gave the raw wood top a white-wash treatment (watered down white paint, then wipe it off with a rag). You can probably find a good tutorial by googling it. Cuz I'm coming up short in that department today.

If you happened to notice the painting above on the dresser, it is one of my mom's originals. 

I'm so geeled she has revived her talents after hardly painting for over two decades! If you're interested, she sells her paintings locally in Cedar Falls, Iowa or I have them in my booth at the Parma Antique Mall in Parma, Michigan.

Like it? Please do me a huge favor and pin it! :)

A peek into my booth where a few of my mom's paintings are available

top left:

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Rusty's Long Dresser Repurposed Into a Bench

Because this was Rusty Wellman's dresser as a kid, that totally ups the value. 

It even came with two pairs of his socks stuffed behind a drawer.

Alexandria, don't buy him any more socks for Christmas until you check behind his drawers. Then wrap up the ones hiding and he'll think they're brand new. Follow me for more Christmas gift ideas.

So I started by measuring down from the top and drawing a line all the way around the top that I wanted to cut off.  Hopefully that makes sense.  If not, just watch in the next photos. And yes, I'm standing on a stool....

I used a battery powered skill saw by Ryobi. It has a laser beam to help keep your cut nice and straight!

And I love that there are no dumb cords to get in the way!

You can see on the right, the first cut I made.  Now I'm cutting across the back and meeting up with that cut.

There we go! It's in two pieces! That's just a real satisfying feeling, y'all.

Now we're going to take the top half apart and use the dresser top for the seat. This one needed exactly one inch cut off of each side so it would fit nice and snug down in those three sides.

A saw I like even more than the hand held circular saw is my Ryobi miter saw.  It's a slider (best thing ever) and I think it cuts ten inches.  This is obviously wider than 10 inches, but you just flip it over and match up the cut.  It's pretty simple.

The back was very thin and left the seat feeling insecure so I screwed a board along the back and into the seat. I put a long screw in about every five inches.  Might have been overkill... but it's better that than having it flimsy!

The next part was like fitting puzzle pieces in the empty gaps.  I measured and cut scrap boards to fit perfectly into the empty spaces.  I used wood glue and a nailer to secure the pieces in place.

I painted it all light gray and spray painted the handles with black Rustoleum spray paint.

Now just add pillows, a throw, and a little girl and you're all done! :)

A little more "localness" for ya - those pillows are made from grain sacks I got from Calvin at the Parma Feed and Grain elevator. :)

Benches with storage are the BEST!

Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?

Mudroom bench with hats and mittens?

Like it? 

 Then please do this blogger a favor and PIN IT! :)

While you're here, here's a small dresser turned bench!

Such a cutie! 

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Repurposed Dresser To Cute Bench Seat

How do you still get excited about redoing a piece of furniture when you've done hundreds over the last few years?

This one is especially exciting to me because I've legit been wanting to tackle a dresser-to-bench project for years!  I'm sure I probably saw it on Pinterest way back when I still had a crease-free forehead and have just never had the right dresser to do it with.  Mostly because I just can't quite hack up a perfectly good dresser when people are always looking for dressers! 

And then this fell into my possession.  A friend brought me this chest of drawers and it had taken some serious abuse from her adorable but full-of-it grandkids! Thankfully, the bottom drawer, the one I wanted to salvage, was still in great shape!

I removed the back and used my Ryobi skill saw to cut the sides shorter. If you don't have a battery-powered skill saw.... you are missing out on one of the finer things of life.  I still managed to screw up though...

I had just recently acquired some old trim boards out of a friends fixer-upper and I used those for the back.  I'll put in another plug for Ryobi - their battery powered brad nail gun is life changing!

The dresser top was the perfect seat!  I just cut a couple inches off the sides so it would fit on top of the drawer space nice and snug.  I secured it with brads and a couple long screws.  Screws were splitting the wood though.... eek.  Hate that. I also found some finishing pieces in my stash to go across the raw edges where I had cut.

Thankfully, I did not need to buy new drawer pulls as I had these bronze ones from something else that I had taken apart.  Can't even remember what - but they were just the right size!

Which means.... I didn't pay a single dime for this whole project! :)

Even the paint came from a friend who was getting rid of it.

Free always makes everything better!  So do cats.

Top that off with a pillow made from a feed sack straight out of the Parma Grain and Feed elevator. 

Is this bench perfect?  'Course not. It's got flaws, just like it's creator.  And I'm good with that.

Like it? Pin it! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

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