Repurpose and Renew

On a trip to the Seattle area in January I purchased a 5 drawer dresser at Goodwill for $15.00.

One of my first blog posts a couple of years ago had been a refinish project. I learned a whole lot from that project and felt that I could be much more efficient this time around.

However, as the project moved along the plan changed enough that it took me far longer than I expected.

The challenge came after I decided to try and convert the top 2 drawers into a cabinet section. I also wanted to use the dawer facings as my cabinet doors. And so the adventure began.

The dresser was a weird green, brown and white color.

First step was to strip the paint. Sadly I didn't take enough before pictures of the dresser. Trust me though, it was not pretty.

After I finished stripping the old paint, the second step was to put a coat of spray polyurethane on the peice. Looking back I should have sanded first. When sprayed the poly made the piece look a little green around the gills.

Third step was to remove the drawer faces off 2 of the drawer. No problems there, but I got stuck trying to figure out how to convert then make the doors.

Huge thank-yous to Jim and Patty. I chatted with Patty a great deal about this project and her husband Jim was willing to cut the drawer faces for me!

Fourth step included a trip to Home Depot to have a piece of lumber cut to size for the new cabinet shelf. The trip was successful, but my measurements were a little off, and I spent a good part of an afternoon shaving down the shelf. 1/4" doesn't seem like a lot, but it can make all the difference!

I found a fantastic Etsy shop where I was able to customer order the drawer pulls I wanted for the dresser.

The picture above is my order courtesy of:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/kmadson

The drawer knobs are amazing!

Things ground to a halt for awhile due to weather and travel. The sun was out this weekend and so in a flurry of activity I finally finished out my project.

Things accomplished this weeked:

Sanded the surface area, the poly is gone and it looks much better.

Built the cabinet doors from the peices that had been cut for me.

Put the new cabinet shelf in.

Attached the dawer knobs

Attached the hinges.

The hinges were another new element for me. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what kind of hinge to use. The dresser frame is pretty narrow, and the drawer faces had some unique insets and groves left over from their previous life. In the end the easiest choice worked. So glad for that!

Below is the finished product. Looks pretty sweet. Will now be the home for my ever growing piles of fabric.