Pottery Barn Black - The Dresser Painting Experiment

The kiddos and I found a bargain dresser for $25 at the thrift store a couple of months ago. Daughter #1 claimed it. She thinks it's beautiful. Ug.

It's been sitting on the back porch just waiting for some attention. Realized a little belatedly that I didn't take true "before" pictures so you could see the true, uh, beauty of this piece, so just imagine it put back together.

My parents used to have something like this years ago...with a big ol' mirror on top.

Theirs didn't have chewed up corners, though. Just sayin'.

Stripped off the hardware. Like my fancy screwdriver? For the life of me, I couldn't find any other Phillips screwdrivers. My kids are grounded.

All drawers out and ready to sand...

Getting fancy here, I know. The finish was actually pretty good, so all I did was rough it up a bit with some 220 grit sandpaper. Make sure to sand with the grain. Like the left handed sanding action photo? That's because my action photo skills need some work.

Rust-oleum black satin spray paint was recommended by a friend of mine who is a furniture painting guru.

Taped off the drawers for painting. Really could have done a better job of the taping but I was in a hurry. Not good, because that means I had to sand off the overspray later. So much for hurrying. Put on three to four coats and used three cans of spray paint. Total cost? Less than $15.00.

I was going to replace the hardware, but my daughter (who laid claim to this dresser) nixed the idea. When it went back on, I kind of liked it. It works.

The full effect...

Roughed up the edges a bit to give it a worn look. It kind of brightens it up, too.

Dresser is in my room until the girls have space in theirs. Not sure I'm going to want to give it up!

Just realized that I forgot to take pictures of the mirror before it was painted to match. It will hang above the dresser. It used to be gold. Now it's a lovely satin black with a little gold peaking thru. Flash from the camera on the beveled edges is giving it that tic-tac-toe look. =] 

The tall dresser on the right is now on the back porch waiting for a facelift. It got sanded today. New pics soon...