wash, dry and fold.

Published on by Quandie

Recently my bff, Vonda, and her husband downsized.  They moved out of their huge four bedroom home into a two-bedroom place.  As a result, they had to downsize their belongings as well.  I’d always admired this vintage dresser, so when Vonda offered it to me I jumped on it.

I have to say, that is a terrible ‘before’ photo.  I don’t always follow my own outside photo taking rules when doing a ‘before’ photo, and this one is particularly bad.  You can barely tell that the dresser was green.  Well, mostly green with some drips of white here and there.  I thought the floral decals were pretty sweet though.  Funny enough, it wasn’t until I sanded them down a little that I realized the decals were covering up key holes as well as extra holes where there were once drawer pulls with two screws instead of knobs.  Now that I know that, when I look at the ‘before’ photo I think ‘duh, of course they were.’  Just look back at that photo, see what I mean?

Anyway, when I brought this piece home the top of the dresser had split at a seam and a couple of the drawers had seen better days.  My handyman Ken made quick work of repairing those problems.  He removed the top, glued it back together and then re-attached it with dowel pins which makes the entire piece much sturdier.

He also re-glued both of the bottom drawers.

Once that was done, I sanded the piece well and then painted it with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, which is a warm, creamy white.  When the paint was dry, I sanded the edges to distress.  I wanted to allow some of that pale green to show through, as well as some of the light blue that was under the green.

There’s nothing like layers of color to lend a sense of age to a piece.  In this case, the layers … and the age … are genuine.

Next I added a coat of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.  Once that was dry, I added Prima Marketing’s Laundry transfer.

Once that was in place I felt like the bottom half of the dresser looked really plain, so I pulled out a leftover bit from the Seeds transfer and added that to the bottom drawer.

Over time this dresser had gotten a little beat up, been a bit neglected and thus had lost some of its original charm, but I think I brought it back (what do you say bff?).

It would be a great piece for a laundry room (if you are blessed enough to have a size-able laundry room that is pretty, mine is a dingy corner in my cellar-like basement).

But it could just as easily work in a bedroom.

Or really anywhere!

If you’re wondering where to purchase the Prima Marketing Laundry transfer check out their ‘where to buy’ page.

If you’re wondering where to buy the Dixie Belle Drop Cloth or flat clear coat, you can shop with them directly online or find a retailer near you.

And finally, if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of an adorable cottage style dresser, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

19 thoughts on “wash, dry and fold.”

  1. Sweet little dresser. So happy you have Ken for all the rescue moments of furniture. And Dixie Belles dropcloth is my favorite white to use. I pair it with sandbar for some really good contrast on details. Love the transfer, think I have that tucked away in my horrible, messy, overflowing craft room. Your BFF should be so happy you did the beautiful update to it.

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    1. I highly recommend making the move to Minnesota. Sure, it’s cold. And yeah, parts of the state got 10″ of snow this week, but not the Twin Cities 😉

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  4. Love it! And I’m sure it was difficult for Vonda to downsize, but once it’s done, it feels pretty good. And you (and probably many other people) got some treasures in the process. Love the look of this one…solid and simple. Another great makeover dor the books (or I should say “the blog”).

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  6. So cute! This would look so good in a laundry room or my screened in porch!
    I do not live close, but I keep an eye on your pieces for sale. I have it in my head one day we will be going your direction and I can buy a piece from you. Loved the blue dresser with the rose transfer. I see some extremely lucky person bought it! Kills me I tell ya, kills me! Ugh!!!!😯

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    1. It would be so cute on a screen porch. Love that idea! As for the dresser, if it’s the one I’m thinking of, nope, nobody bought it. Instead my niece traded me a different dresser for it. So now she has the blue one and I took back one I painted for a her a few years ago. I’ll re-paint it and post it soon!

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  9. It would look fabulous in my laundry room. Right now I have the black buffet table you did for me years ago in that room. You did a super job on the dresser and I am so happy it has been restored.

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