Easy Dresser Makeover

One of my favorite things to do is look at others before and after dresser projects. There are so many different styles of dressers and so many creative people out there. I have a long list of ideas on my Furniture Redo board on Pinterest to help my creative juices start flowing when I see a piece that needs some love and attention.
When I saw this dresser on Craigslist not far from my home I had to go and take a look. The picture in the ad looked like the dresser was flawless, but when I went to pick it up it needed some work. Here is what it looked like before:

If you look at the pictures closely you can see that it is distressed in a non-chic way and with the spot on the top I knew that I had a little more work in getting this dresser ready to re-sell. The dresser was in the best shape I have ever gotten a dresser in (and cost me more than most dressers I get at $40) and so I knew that this probably would be a fairly simple project.

After deciding what I wanted to do with it I decided just to give it a fresh coat of paint and then add some chalkboard areas for fun. I bought Rustoleum's black spray paint in satin finish to match the black that was already on the dresser. Since I was matching the paint to what was there, I didn't see the need to sand down the surface or prime it. I cleaned up the surfaces and sprayed light coats over the dresser.

Thankfully I live in Colorado where it is super dry and so paint dries in record time. After the paint was dry I noticed a few areas that had gotten too much paint or too little, and worked on fixing those areas. The following day I decided to do the chalkboard paint. With a small little paint tray and sponge roller (the smallest size Home Depot sells), I poured in some chalkboard paint and carefully rolled the paint onto the raised areas of the drawers. (Oh, I took the knobs off when painting these areas). I then taped the sides and rolled on thin layers of chalkboard paint. I was nervous because the sponge made the paint look bumpy, but it dried nice and smooth. I also originally thought it would be similar in color to the black spray paint, but I am so glad it was different. The two colors compliment each other so nicely! I jumped around and did a happy dance. For once a project turned out better than I expected and took me less time and money then I expected...that never happens.

Here's how it looks now:

What's cool is that it looks awesome without any chalk on it, and if you want to label what goes in each drawer or add a fun quote to the sides then you have that option too! Or if your kids love writing on everything but paper, well now they can :)

I am going to have a hard time selling this now since I love it so much!