Painting More Furniture

So in my ongoing effort to lighten/brighten my living room I decided to repaint some furniture. This is something I really enjoy doing. I've been painting furniture since I was in high school. I love that you can take an old worn out piece (usually made of inferior wood) and make it into a whole new piece with some paint. And if you change your mind in a couple of years, just repaint it! It's my favorite way to freshen up a room.

First up was the tv dresser. A couple of years ago I knew we needed another solution to how our DVD's were stored and the "entertainment center" we had was cheap and falling apart. I knew that with an active baby/toddler we'd need to get the DVD's out of reach (they were in a low cabinet in the center).

I went searching Craigslist for a dresser, I wanted to put the DVD's in drawers which would be much harder for little hands to open. I found this great dresser for only $50! The lady selling it was moving and it couldn't go with them (downsizing). She was doing interior design and found it and wanted to do something cool with it but never got to it with small children in the house.

Getting it ready to paint.

It was red when we bought it and while I loved it red, David didn't care for it. So I picked a neutral color: black. I loved the way it looked! But it was time to lighten it up. So it got a fresh coat of white. It's the same white I've painted my trim in the house. That way I don't have contrasting whites!

This is the only pic I could find of it black. Looking at this pic, it was very dark and heavy.

SO much better!

Then to my steamer trunk. This was my great-aunt's trunk back around 1900's or so. My grandparents ended up with it after she and my uncle passed away. My grandpa had it painted and fixed up inside. Then a few years ago they were ready to part with it so I took it. I lived with it as it was for a few years until I was ready to repaint it. I painted it a soft teal color and didn't really care for it but it was better than before. So I lived with it for a few months.

This is how I got it from my grandparents. And yes there are butterflies and hearts painted on it...

Round 1 of painting. Not bad but it just wasn't working.

So 2 weeks ago I was ready to paint it again. I wanted to do something bold so I picked a bright green. And it was AWFUL! So, I picked another green and it was better but still not good. They were so bad that I didn't even take pics of them. At this point my desire to risk something was so out the window! It's not often I pick a wrong paint color. about 90% of the time I love the colors I pick. I was so in that 10% window. I was also tired of slapping paint on this sucker!

I talked to David about what color I needed to paint this thing and be done with it. We decided on gray. I wanted to spray paint it at this point so I went looking for gray at Lowe's and frankly their selection of gray spray paint was not good. So, I decided to go with tan. It was boring but I was done with this thing.

Finally the right color!

After spraying it, I felt much better. It actually looked much better. When David brought it back in the house, I loved it! It fit in with what I want the room to look like, light.

So there you go, my tale of 2 pieces of furniture. I have to say, I was really getting tired of heading to Lowe's a couple of times a week to get paint! And I think most of my painting adventures are over for a while.

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