Wyatt's Dresser/Changing Table Overhaul, pt. 3

Check out part two, here.

Once we got the bulk of the work done, all the painting and sanding and time spent letting both of those dry (!!) the rest was super quick and easy. I am just really impatient and excited to see it finished so it felt like it took forever. I decided to try to polish and use the original brass hardware and rather than picking up a bottle of Tarn-x or something similar I wanted to use what we had on hand, I googled around since I had previously heard you could use lemon juice and baking soda. I found this article on Apartment Therapy and got to work. They cleaned up super easy and quick but I sort of missed a very crucial step..

 " 7. When you're done give the brass a really thorough rinse making sure there's no paste left over and then dry it with a clean dry towel."

 Now I did rinse and dry them, but let my mistake be a lesson.. REALLY rinse them good, possibly even wash them with soap and water and then dry them just as thoroughly. I wasn't as meticulous as I should've been and my knobs totally rusted! It wasn't all that bad and I managed to fix them but that was a disappointment.

 

It only rusted along the little crevices where I'm sure I just didn't dry well enough.

At this point they were either going in the trash or I was going to have to try to paint them. Over on Young House Love they've repainted hardware before with Sherry's favorite Rust-oleum Oil-Rubbed Bronze Universal spray paint so I knew we would be in good hands. I went ahead and sanded all the rust spots off and just roughed them up in general with some 225grit sandpaper. I wanted to make sure they wouldn't be too slick for the paint to really grab a hold of so I took my time and got into all the little nooks and tight spots and made sure I got rid of every bit of rust and roughed up the entire thing.

After I did that with all the knobs and handles, all EIGHTEEN of them, I rigged them up to be painted. I used the cardboard piece out from a bolt of burlap leftover from our wedding and wooden kebab skewers to do the knobs and got super creative with some thread and a tree in our backyard to hang the handles.

To set these up I just broke the skewers into smaller pieces and stabbed them into the cardboard and set the the knobs right on top.

I hit them with quite a few really thin coats, giving about 10 minutes between each. I let the handles dry for a while with them hanging on the tree so that the handle wouldn't ding it up by laying on it.

I used sewing thread and made a large loop around the handle, and another large loop which I just hung in the Dogwood tree in our backyard.

Once I felt they were dry enough that they wouldn't make a mark, I cut the thread and laid them carefully on a piece of cardboard so I could move them inside overnight. I let those dry for two days and then I put them back on and they look perfect! The deep chocolatey brown is so gorgeous next to the blue and I swear it has hints of gold sparkle but I am not sure if that's the paint or the brass showing through.

I also decided I would line the inside of the drawers for a fun surprise every time they got opened. It was super quick other than waiting for it to dry. Which seems to be a common theme among DIYing, and I am one impatient lady. But it was fairly simple. I used another tutorial from Young House Love where they lined the drawers for Clara's dresser/changing table remodel as well! I got all my supplies together and it went super quick.

I wiped out each drawer with a lone sock, his mate is still missing in the laundry, and then measured the inside of my two differently sized drawers. After that I cut all nine of the liners I would need so I was ready to go after that. I found I got the least amount of bubbles and wrinkles in my paper if I would mod podge half the drawer, line my paper up and smooth it out, fold it back over and mod podge the second half of the drawer and then smooth that half out.

I got into the corners more than is showing in that photo, I think I should've done it a little thicker though.

I did all the drawers and let them dry overnight so that the bottom layer of mod podge would be completely dry before I just put more on top of it. I used a foam brush to apply the mod podge and it was super easy. I made sure to get a good seal along the edges. I love it! This was definitely a successful project. :) And now for some detail shots and dresser porn.

Gorgeous lacquered top, nice and shiny!

Our gorgeous fluff! I will be reviewing the ALVA diapers once W is here.

And our Honest disposable diapers we are going to be using until he's large enough to fit into the All-In-One cloth diapers without us having to worry about leaks.

Wyatt's Dresser/Changing Table Overhaul, pt. 2

Check out part one, here.

Finally you could say the dresser is finished. Well, finished if we were just going to buy new hardware or use the old hardware as-is. (Hint: we are not.) Once we got the top stenciled and stained we went ahead and let that cure/dry for a couple days and worked on getting all the drawers and the body of the dresser primed. We used KILZ 2 latex primer and it worked great. We did two coats on the drawer fronts and three on the body, lightly sanding in between each coat with 220.

After that was given ample time to dry we went in and did our first coat of paint. We chose Valspar Ultra in Playful Pool in the gloss finish. I didn't want too much of a primary blue color and I fell in love with the gorgeous almost Tiffany blue color. We got it in the gloss so that it would be more durable and easy to clean since it will be in Wyatt's room. We did two coats, rolled it onto the flat drawer fronts and dresser sides using the same 4'' foam roller and cut in along the edges of the drawer fronts and then along the bottom of the dresser with our brush. The can said to let it dry overnight between coats, and it was a little chilly overnight so we gave it a few extra hours on top of that.

 And I love how it came out! I am so surprised how much I love the color. I have never painted such a big piece a bold color and I'm so happy with it! I love how the blue looks against the stained top, and makes the decorative edge along the bottom pop. This will be so perfect in Wyatt's room! I can't wait to see the rest of it come together. In part three I will cover how we refinished the original brass hardware, since it was super rusted, and how we covered the inside of the drawers.