Recently I’ve been telling friends and family that I have placed a moratorium on bringing home any more furniture. I don’t have a lot of space for storing pieces, so I have to be sending just as many out the door as I’m bringing in the door. And somewhere along the line the balance got thrown off. So for the last month or so I have been trying not to bring in any new pieces to work on until I get some of the ones that I already have finished.
But then I found an awesome desk at a garage sale for just $15. How do you pass that up?
And then there was a bedroom set that my friend Meggan’s husband’s co-worker (or something like that) was selling. Meggan had texted me about it a while back and I made an offer at the time. Then I basically forgot about it. So when they accepted my offer a few weeks later I felt like I should ignore the moratorium and bring the set home. I figured I could squeeze them in somewhere. So last week Mr. Q and I drove out to pick them up. The set includes a tall dresser, a dressing table and a full size bed.
I decided to start with the tall dresser.
There was nothing terribly wrong with this dresser, it just needed to be lightened up.
So I got out my Little Billy Goat paint in Momma’s Fridge, which is a lovely pale aqua blue.
I took just two coats to get good coverage. I like to water the paint down a little for the second coat because it goes on a little more smoothly.
Once the paint was dry, I added a stencil to the top of the dresser to give it a little extra personality using white acrylic craft paint.
I finished with a coat of Miss Mustard Seed furniture wax. Just so you know, you must seal Little Billy Goat’s paint with a top coat of some kind. Otherwise water will take the paint off. This is handy for distressing with a wet paper towel, but not so handy for daily use, so always seal pieces painted with Little Billy Goat.
The hardware that came with this dresser is so pretty. I just added a little more gold to them using a Little Billy Goat Goat Stick in Gold Leaf.
If you haven’t tried one of these, they are really so easy to use. Keep in mind that they are self-sealing, so you have to peel off the waxy coating, or rub the stick on paper until it comes off, each time you use it. It’s really pretty slick and so much more user friendly than the rub ‘n buff (which I find dries out in the tube, and then you have to toss half of it away). Here was my process for these drawer pulls; first I rubbed off the waxy coating on the stick, then I ran the stick lightly around the pull itself. I didn’t press hard or cover the whole thing, I just wanted to get some of it on there. Then I went back in with a q-tip and blended it. Think of it like blending your eye shadow.
I added the hardware back onto the dresser, and it was done.
A super easy makeover.
Please check my ‘available for local sale’ tab to see if this piece is still available.
Please note that Little Billy Goat has supplied me with paint and goat sticks, but all opinions are my own and I am not compensated for this post. If you would like to try Little Billy Goat paint and you are local, you can find it at Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater. You can also find Little Billy Goat products online at piperclassics.com.
q is for quandie 
Your piece turned out wonderful. I haven’t heard of this brand, but will be looking for it. Especially love the hardware redo.
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Thanks Sugar! This brand actually comes from Texas, so you should check them out!
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Whew, when I read the moratorium I immediately thought it was curtains for Quandie. Well glad to see that it was an imaginary moratorium and like the rest of us your self imposed ‘rules’ don’t apply except in a mythical secret way. The dresser is great, the color is one of my faves and I always love when you recommend a product.
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LOL, I like the way you put that Laura! Exactly right 😉
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Very pretty ! Do you think the Billy Goat stick would work on the hardware on my front door? I hate to replace the handle and deadbolt, but it is looking worn. Do you think it would wear well? Any other ideas?
Thank you Q,
Blessings
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That is a really good question. I’m going to ask the people at Little Billy Goat and get an official answer, so check back for that later. But I’m not sure it would hold up to extreme temps. I can tell you for sure what does not work, and that is spray paint. I spray painted my brass exterior door handle with oil rubbed bronze spray paint and it looked absolutely awful within a month or so.
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Now that is good to know using the oil rubbed bronze outdoors. I even wonder about using it indoors on knob hardware that get’s touched so often.
Does it really hold up?
The piece has wonderful lines and it has casters be still my heart. But on my iPad it really comes across as a soft white. It must be an ever so pale shade. Told my husband about the stick we may have to order some of those. We could own stock in rub n buff,
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I suspect that the oil rubbed bronze spray paint is equally bad on indoor knobs. If anyone else out there has had a good experience with it, maybe they will leave a comment, but I have not. This is a pale shade, but definitely aqua-ish. I work on two different computers, plus I see my own posts on my phone … and honestly all 3 look different. My home computer is much brighter than my work computer (despite trying to change the brightness settings) and my phone is somewhere in the middle. I always wonder what my readers are seeing when they look at my photos. Are they too dark, are they too light? It seems to really depend on the screen you’re seeing it on. A good reason to never pick a color without seeing it in person. That’s why I don’t like to order paint online.
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Wow, just gorgeous! My hubby has the same rule…..if one piece comes in, one piece goes out! Not always……. Love your work and truly enjoy your blog!
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Rules are meant to be broken, right Geniece?!
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Your blog started my day just perfectly! I’m motivated to get out to my stash of stuff for some major overhaul and beautification! 🙂
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Get going Joni! It’s a gorgeous day to be out painting … or whatever … I’ve taken a last minute PTO day at work and I’m going to be painting in mere moments 😉
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there is not one piece you have done that I do not LOVE Linda.. and I love your storytelling as it always hits home, I too professed a moratorium but can never stand firm with all the great pieces needing love!
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Thank you so much Lee Ann! I suspect we are not alone in our inability to stick to a moratorium 😉
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Another gorgeous piece! Love the do-over…the hardware looks so much better. And what’s funny is, I thought it looked fine BEFORE …but once I saw the “after”, totally blows my mind. Always love to see how a piece that looks “ok” can undergoe such a transformation…usually to “stunning”. Keep up the good work.
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You are so right, it was ‘fine’ before … but just fine, not fabulous 😉
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If you run out of room just load some of those fantastic pieces onto a truck and send them my way 🙂
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Cute! I just posted a repainted dresser myself! Hope you’ll check it out.
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