harlequin painted dresser tutorial

i never even got the chance to share this.

i bought this dresser at the thrift shop, refinished it and put it in the girls’ room. and before i even showed it on the blog we changed gears and redid the girls’ room…rendering my hard work unnecessary.

you know why i never showed it on the blog? because the room was never CLEAN enough for me to take good pictures of it! sad, but true.

and as we cleaned the rooms out on day 1 of construction, it STILL wasn’t clean enough for me to take pictures.

i still love it though, and wanted to share. so i pushed things to the side and snapped a couple of shots quickly.

some really, really lousy pictures.

sorry about that.

but i still love how this dresser turned out, and couldn’t part with it. so i gave it a new home in my sewing corner, holding thread and ribbon and fabrics and lace and interfacing.

somewhere i lost my photo of the untouched dresser. it has good bones, and was just a sad off-white color. the top was a stained laminate, and the knobs are wood. basically it was a deal i couldn’t pass up—especially not for $19!

i started by removing all the drawers and cleaning the whole thing, inside and out.

i took the knobs off the drawers…

and was super proud of my handy knob painter that i made up:

you may see this as a box with wooden skewers…

i see it as a time and finger saver.

(i also see it as a strange modern art installation. anyone?)

anyway, everything got three coats of spray paint: the first two white

and then i veerrry lightly misted it with a cream color, just to tone down the white a touch.

then two good coats of clear protectant.

once it was all dry i replaced the drawers.

and began lightly marking a diamond pattern across the front. i started from the center, since i wanted the diamonds centered on the drawers and it was easier that way.

you can barrrrely see the lines i drew in this shot:

then i mixed these two paints 50/50:

(decorart metallics in champagne gold, and jo-ann craft paint in ivory)

and brushed the paint in my diamond shapes:

 

then i dabbed all over with a dry rag to get rid of the paint marks and lighten it all up.

next i took a gold paint pen and filled in all the little routed details on the drawers and base.

 

i didn’t tape off anything, i wanted to keep it loose and organic. not perfect.

i let that all dry…

(this picture is most accurate in terms of color, versus the ones taken in the house which have a pink cast i couldn’t fully erase)

and then gave it a very light sanding to further break up the painting and smooth the whole thing.

initially i thought the knobs would be cute with pink centers.

i did about 5 before i realized it was no good.

so i switched to black centers and edges.

muuuch better. :)

and when it was all dry and back together and in their room it looked really cute.

for about 2 months.

 

it’s okay though. because i have plenty of use for it in my sewing area! and at $19 for the dresser, plus 2 cans of spray paint (i had all the rest), it was totally worth it for less than $30!