Wisteria Inspired Dresser Redo

Wisteria Inspired Dresser Redo

contributed by Down On Sanford

To start off: AHHHH! I've finally finished this dresser! I started working on it way back in August, and it kept getting put off, having complications and being forgotten about so I'm very relieved to be done with it!

I drew my inspiration for the dresser from one particular piece of furniture on the Wisteria site:

I love the muted tones and the faded, washed sort of look it has.

I knew going into it that I wasn't going to be able to strip the dresser down to bare wood like the wisteria dresser for the very simply reason that the sides weren't real wood. So I had to compromise. I ended up doing multiple layers of paints in different colors in an attempt to emulate wood grain.

I started by painting the entire dresser with a basic sort of light tan color that somewhat matched the color of bare wood. I then thinly and evenly washed over a very dark brown color. After that was dry I finished by washing a lighter gray color over top of the brown color. I'm pretty pleased with the result, I hope you all will be too!

Before I show you the dresser I think I better show you the before picture.


Charming, isn't it? I'm not sure when this sort of look was in style but...yikes!




Okay, so now, without further ado, here is the after:



Doesn't look like a months long project, does it? :P

Honestly, the only reason it took so long was because of my tendency to get bored with a project and just let it sit around unfinished.

Although the hardware isn't particularly "wisteria-ish" I kept it because I didn't have the money to spend on new ones and I thought they looked fairly wonderful anyways. Of course, I did freshen them up a bit by sanding them down so you can see the shiny metal on parts, which I think helps tremendously.

I also did away with the double handles on each drawer and just put a single one in the center.





These little wheels are one of the things I really love about this dresser.





As I said above, I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out, it doesn't look a whole lot like the inspiration photo, but it has the same sort of feel, and that's really all I wanted.

I also wanted to thank you all for your incredibly kind comments! I was surprised at how many of you said you were inspired by my work. For me, inspiring people is the ultimate compliment and truly humbling, so thanks! I hope some of you will send me the links to any projects I may have inspired, because I certainly love to see them!