Rockwell Tools provided me with a Sonicrafter F50. I was not otherwise compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.
WARNING: This post is not for the wood purists. Continue to read at your own risk.
This past Fall Emmy and I started talking about revamping her room a bit… not any major change, but small changes with big impact. One of the necessities was a larger dresser, and I wanted a longer low dresser she’d be able to access easier. She also seemed to want to tone down the colors a bit, requesting a basic palette of pink, gold, black, and white. (And since then she’s modified it to add a little aqua). And yes, we just changed up her room last year, but her room is the most fun to play in, and she loves to rearrange! So why not?
After perusing pinterest, she was fairly certain she wanted a French dresser, but it’s nearly impossible to find a triple french dresser in our price range. I showed her some more inspiration images in the way pf midcentury modern pieces painted white. I also showed her a few I found locally, and after about a month, we made a decision and purchased a very solid and sturdy dresser with more modern lines. I forgot to take a total before picture, but here it is after it was sanded with my orbital sander.
As you can see, this dresser has LOTS of lines and corners that were hard to reach with my orbital. I couldn’t get the corners inside each drawer panel.
I had recently received the Rockwell Sonicrafter F 50 and it was perfect for getting into those little nooks and edges with its sanding head (not pictured below).
This power tool has many functions and a hyperlock tool-free blade changing system, which makes it really safe and easy to use. It also is easily hand held, and provides a ton of power! It made sanding all of these smaller corners so much easier! And neon pink running shoes make anything more fun.
Once this piece was completely sanded and ready to go, Chris and I put it in the garage, until one month later I was finally ready to pick up a paint brush after an almost two month hiatus! As soon as Christmas passed, we dragged it into the basement for me to finally get cracking. And once I started, I was so excited to see the finished product.
I gave it two coats of Zinnser oil based primer (this is THE BEST for adhesion that I have found), and used super fine sandpaper to sand smooth between coats. I then gave it a coat of water based Zinnser. I did this becauase I really wanted one more coat of primer for a solid white base, but the oil primer is harder to work with and slightly toxic. I try not to use it as much as possible, but it was really needed for this dresser and I was going for a modern finish (I didn’t want any paint chipping ever!).
After the 3 coats of primer, sanding after each coat, I applied two coats of General Finishes Antique White milk paint. This paint is not “chippy” milk paint but rather an acrylic paint with a smooth finish and I knew it would be perfect for this piece.
To protect it, as a final step on the body, I added a coat of General Finishes Top Coat in Satin which gave it a nice slight gloss. While that was drying, I applied Rub-N-Buff to the hardware to revitalize it and make it gold.
And in the end, I was so happy with the results. It was a lot of work to get here, but worth every effort. We’ve already hauled it up to her room (THAT was an adventure!). Many things you see below will probably change, but for now….
I just love the lines on this dresser. It’s a gorgeous piece that can easily grow with Emmy.
And the base of it… it’s those little design details that really make a piece.
For now, Emmy and I decorated the dresser with items we had in her room already. The only addition is this awesome “Do What You Love Print from Lucy of Craftberry Bush (You can find her shop on Society 6 here). I bought it for Emmy for Christmas because I just loved the look and sentiment. I had this pink vintage molding frame in storage in the basement. Emmy and I loved the way it suited the print.
On the other end of her dresser lives her happy Beta, Kaleidoscope. She wanted to set up her little gnomes so that they were playing music for him.
I took a few more pictures so that you could see progress, but I feel like I’ve already said so much, so we’ll save that for later.
But I won’t totally leave you hanging because I want to tell you about this amazing sweepstakes from Rockwell Tools! Through January 31, you can enter to win two full sets of your own Rockwell power tools- one for you and one to give to a friend! Head here to enter!
Have a great Monday!!!! Stay warm!
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