Repainting an Old White Dresser; Awesome Craig's List Find

Erin at 3 Meadow Lake Cottage has made a wonderful change to an old white dresser.

I FINALLY finished the rehab project on my Craigslist dresser.

It was hard work.

But it only took me 3 months :)

Here's a reminder of how it looked when I bought it...

It was in such sad shape: peeling paint, missing knobs, red stains from an unknown substance, and drawers that didn't work. 

But it had great bones. 

So I scraped

and scraped

and scraped.

Then I sanded

and sanded

and sanded.

  

Then I painted two coats of primer and three coats of semi-gloss white paint on it.

I managed to fix almost all of the drawers glides by using a screw driver to some WD-40.

I only had to replace one of the glides because it was beyond repair. 

Thank goodness because they run about $5.00/each for new glides!

After scrubbing the heck out of the insides of the drawers to get them clean, 

I added some contact paper {from Target} to the bottoms to make them look super crisp and clean.

I picked out and ordered some classic oil rubbed bronze knobs and handles off of Ebay 

{Ebay has GREAT deals on cabinet hardware if you are ever in the market for some!}.

I chose hardware that looks really simple and classic since there are a lot of details on the dresser itself.

And after ALL of that hard work, here is how the dresser turned out...

Here is a before and after for comparison...

Oh and here's my old piece-o-junk that it replaced...

 

Much better, don't ya think??

{Hopefully I can get someone to buy that old thing!}

I am so in love with how it turned out.

Thank goodness I didn't toss in the towel half way through the project.

In the future, however, if I see a piece of furniture that needs massive rehab like this one did, 

I probably will run the other direction!


Here's the cost breakdown:
Dresser: $20
Stripping Supplies: $36
Paint Supplies: $37
Knobs/Pulls: $20 {included shipping}
Contact Paper: $5
Drawer Glide: $5
TOTAL: $123

My new dresser kinda reminds me of the one of been drooling over at Pottery Barn... 

 Except that one is priced at $1,199.

I think I like mine better anyways.

Wow I can't believe the savings!  Wait, I can!  

Great job on the white dresser rehab!