Vintage Dresser - white on white and whitewashed

A friend was moving to USA and asked if I would like to purchase a vintage dresser that was her Moms and they had used for 30 years of marriage after getting passed down from her Mom.

It had seen lots of use and somewhere along the way, the handles were lost and replaced with some shiny gold knobs. However it has nice simple bones and would look great after a makeover.

First order of business after removing all the hardware was to flip all the drawer runners. Wood drawers on wood runners over the years can cause lots of wear and mostly uneven wear. Flipping them over to the flat side gives them years more wear.

A good wipe down with Simply Green spray and a wet cloth was next. The original finish however was lifting pretty much all over the whole dresser.

If you paint over this it will be a disaster, stripping and sanding the entire dresser was necessary.

I currently am using a heavy duty furniture stripper that works great.

Once stripped it orbital sanding ensures the surface is smooth and removes any residual finish.

The wood was so dry it sucked up Daddy Van's hemp oil quickly.

Seeing I was painting the body white, I decided to use Homestead House's Stain & Finishing Oil in white to give the drawer fronts a whitewashed look. Two coats and it looked perfect. (first coat shown above going on bottom drawer)

The body of the dresser was painted Fusion Mineral Paint lamp white, a white with a grey base in two coats using my Cling On short brush. The sides of the drawers (shown above) were freshened up to.

Using my lily scroll stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils, I stenciled Fusion Mineral Paint in picket fence, a crisp white over the body of the dresser.

Cutting Edge Stencils are nice and thick so lay flat and firm while brushing over the stencil. (opps some paint on my fingertips too ;)

With the picket fence over the lamp white you can see the differences in the shades of white

Finding hardware with 4 1/4" OC dimensions proved very hard however D Lawless Hardware always seems to have the perfect solution. The solid wood carved pulls shown above can be affixed using wood screws in the existing holes!!

I painted them in 2 coats of the lamp white and once dry, sanded and sealed with Fusion's wipe on tough coat for added durability. This clear coat was applied to the entire dresser body as well with a damp sponge in 2 coats (3 on the top).

Measuring multiple times from the drawer top, bottom and side I pre drilled pilot holes in the wooden pull back then securely attached with wood screws. For the top drawer, I chose these pretty white milk glass knobs.