Spring Inspired Repurposed Furniture & Hardware Project

Sometimes I know exactly how I'm going to paint a project piece and sometimes inspiration comes later. In this case, my inspiration came from a friend.

We carry some of our line at a precious boutique in downtown Lee's Summit, MO called Very Violet. I had told Melissa, the owner, about a new project piece we had in mind for the store. I told her I was trying to decide on a new color. She got very excited and encouraged me to try a Spring color.

As a creative person, I love to try new colors, but there's a conflict brewing inside of me. From a business perspective, I need to paint items in the colors that customers will purchase, not necessarily what I'd like to paint. I got a little nervous when Melissa brought me "Easy Street" from the Amy Howard At Home paint line. (By the way, if you're in the Kansas City area, you can purchase Amy Howard products at Very Violet.)

I LOVED the color! But will it transfer well to a stylized piece of furniture? I thought about it for all of about 2 seconds and decided to go for it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

So this French Provincial Dresser and Nightstand were about to get a drastic makeover. Both pieces were in great shape. The downside was that the dresser was missing some hardware. (I'll show you my creative solution later.)

I cleaned the piece with my favorite degreaser, Simple Green or you can also use Krud Cutter. (Both of these are in concentrate form, so you'll need to dilute them.) We took off all the hardware and began painting. Believe it or not, each piece took about 3 coats of paint.

I typically call the first coat of paint the "ugly coat". It dries quickly and I can usually get another coat of paint on right away. Then the paint needs to rest. It needs to dry completely before any other coats. The next day, I finished up with the third coat.

Distressing

One of my favorite parts of repurposing furniture is the distressing. We don't distress every piece, but it has become one of our signature looks. Distressing brings out the character in a piece. It takes it from looking flat to rich.

We use 3M's 100 grit Sandpaper on most projects. We use a Dewalt Orbital Handheld Sander. You have to be careful with distressing. It takes a good eye and some subtlety. I use my sander like a surgeons knife. Ha!

Waxing

For this project, we opted for Amy Howard Clear Wax. It's just one more step to bring out the the character in a project.

Hardware Solutions

The last step in bringing these project pieces back to life was the hardware. Remember I told you we had some missing pieces.

One of my best solutions is to move the hardware around so that the only ones I'm missing are on the top section. That way I can add a consistent look of either glass or wood pulls (click for examples), like you see here. Even though there are different pulls, the placement helps it feel cohesive.