When I take photos of furniture for my blog, I tend to leave some space in the top of the frame on some for adding a title later. For this next piece I did that as usual, but then when I sat down to edit the photos, I realized that I didn’t want to cover up the beautiful fall color in my trees. So I crammed a little title in at the bottom instead.
These trees along the side of my driveway turn the most brilliant yellow in fall. On a sunny day, my house is filled with a bright yellow light. Fall color is at its peak right now in the Twin Cities, and it is absolutely gorgeous out there. I was standing at the gas station filling my car yesterday, and I was just mesmerized by a stand of trees with red leaves across the street that were just beautiful. The light was hitting them just so. I wish I’d had my camera with me!
But this post isn’t really about autumn leaves, it’s about this sweet little chest of drawers. It is your classic Duncan Phyfe-ish style dresser and it originally had that typical cherry stain that most of these pieces came in.
One of the drawers was missing its runner, so Ken built a new one for it. What would I do without Ken? He is so handy and he can just whip out these repairs.
Once that was done, I painted it in MMSMP in Kitchen Scale, a gorgeous jewel tone color that is perfect for autumn. I did sand this piece pretty thoroughly to reduce chippy-ness. It had such a shiny finish, I was worried the paint would just all chip off entirely. However, the sanding alone produced pretty darn good adherence on the flat surfaces (I did not use the bonding agent). As you can see, the top is pretty much a chip free zone, as are the sides and drawer fronts.
Originally I was going to change out the hardware for a simple knob. However, there were 2 holes for these knobs and I didn’t have the patience to fill the extra ones properly. To be honest, I did attempt to fill them kind of haphazardly and they looked so terrible after paint that I had to drill them all out again to put the original pulls back on. C’est la vie.
This petite chest of drawers is the perfect size to use as a bedside table. It is 29.5″ tall, 29.5″ wide and 17″ deep. You could stash all of your reading materials inside, and even have room to store some spare blankets.
This lovely little chest of drawers is priced at $155 (local only please, sorry, but I don’t ship) and I will be posting it on craigslist later today. First come, first served! If you are interested, just leave me a comment and I will get back to you. Sorry, this one is sold.
I didn’t do anything especially fancy or quandie-esque with this little dresser. I felt like the color gave it enough impact without adding anything else. However, I was working on a 2nd piece side by side with this one, and it got the full quandie treatment. It’s not quite done yet, but I hope to have it on the blog by week’s end, so stay tuned.
q is for quandie 
I love that piece! Perfect choice. I really need a bigger house!
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This is definitely one my favorite styles of vintage of furniture. The color is perfect
Sally wishes she had a bigger house. I wish Minnesota was closer to South Carolina.
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And I wish both were true!
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Love it-Kithcen scale is one of my favorite MMS colors! I love your fall leaves too
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We have to enjoy the leaves while they last, they are so fleeting!
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Did you do something to the drawer pulls? They look sharper in the after pic. It looks great, I was wondering if it was the photo or the finish.
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Well Mr. Q, now that you mention it, I just cleaned them up with a little hemp oil. They just look different next to the Kitchen Scale color than they did on the cherry colored stain. And it might be the photography too. I’m trying a new method to keep my pictures from getting too fuzzy on WordPress. Seems to be working 😉
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I love the color you chose and you did a fabulous job redoing this dresser!
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Thanks Jennifer! This is my fave milk paint color. It’s a fun one to work with.
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I like the original handles on it. I love that color too. Our leaves are changing here in NJ too. Kris and I saw some great colors last weekend in the Pa. Countryside. I looked at the temperatures in Budapest. It was 72 today. Dont think it will be that warm when we are there but it looks warmer then we are. We are only in the 50s today.
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Well, Minnesota might be warmer than you again today with a high of 61. Planning to head straight home from the day job and out into the carriage house to finish up a project.
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Hi I love love love your blog it’s so much fun to read!!! I too wish you were in NC or that Minnesota was closer I would buy all you stuff!! I have 2 questions: what do I use to line my drawers with pretty wallpaper? And what kind of black paint do you use to stencil something on brown wood-color and brand if possible!! I’m such a newbie I’m scared I’m going to mess something up!! Lol. Thank you so much!! Amy
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Hi Amy! Welcome! I use regular wallpaper paste to adhere vintage wallpaper to the outsides of drawers. I specify vintage wallpaper, because the vintage stuff was never pre-pasted. So if you are working with vintage wallpaper (and I find mine on Etsy where you can buy by the yard), just get plain old wallpaper paste from Home Depot (or wherever you shop). I haven’t worked with any newer wallpapers, so can’t advise on those. As for stenciling in black, I like to use the Beetle Black Martha Stewart Craft Paint in Satin (available at Michael’s). I like the consistency of this paint for stenciling. I also use the Martha Stewart stenciling brushes from Michael’s. Don’t worry about messing up, it’s part of the process. I’ve messed up LOTS of stuff. It can always be fixed with a little patience and a little more paint. Good luck!
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The perfect setting for that beautiful color. Can’t imagine this one lasting long. I like the original hardware….and yes, it does look better on the painted piece. Very nice job!
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I am interested in this little guy! I am also looking for a bigger dresser in a similar style (doesn’t necessarily need to match, but complement each other).
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Hi there Courtney. I will send you an email regarding this dresser shortly. Thanks for your inquiry.
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