Grain Sack Inspired

What started off as a very old and well-worn dresser ended up blossoming into…um…another old and well-worn looking dresser.  Wait, what?   

Well, the finished result was not actually what I had originally envisioned!  When I first looked at this dresser with its loose joints, missing drawer pulls, drawer bottoms cracked and broken and the wood covered in ink and paint, my first thought was “RUN!”.   

 

 

Maybe I should have actually listened to my gut instinct on that one.  Instead, I decided to give it a chance and with some pretty paint I could make it look new again. 

I started by “removing” the original drawer bottoms.  And when I say removing, I mean smashing them with a hammer until they fell out in jagged small pieces.  Over the years, this poor dresser had obviously gone through some not-so-awesome “repairs”.  Screws drilled through the drawer fronts in an attempt to tighten up some dovetail joints and drawer bottoms nailed and then glued in place with what I can only assume was some heavy duty cement or something!  Yikes.  They were also badly stained and were definitely showing their age.  I knew I had no choice but to remove and replace them with something new.

My original inspiration for paint came from a picture I came across of some beautiful vintage grain sack pillow covers.  

I thought the same look would be great for the dresser.  Sounds simple, right?  Apparently this dresser decided it didn’t want to look new.  Problem after problem I finally got frustrated and decided to “attack” it with my orbital sander….and attack is probably the right word.  I was tempted to sand the thing to a big pile of sawdust.  But then, something “magical” happened and as more of the paint came off, I started to see something more beautiful develop.  While a heavily distressed finish isn’t something I normally aim for, I loved it and knew it was definitely the way to continue with this piece.

One of the things that really caught my eye when I originally looked at the dresser were the sweet little round key plates on each drawer.  

Sadly they seemed to almost disappear against the original wood drawers, so I love how they stand out against the light paint color now.   

Because some of the original drawer pulls were missing or damaged, I chose to buy all new and picked a very simple pull that matched the key plates.  Love it!

After all the frustration and work that went into this dresser, I have to say I am thrilled with it.  Dresser is now listed and available for purchase.

Thanks for stopping by!