Scavenger Chic

Dumpster Dresser ready for a Makeover

• By Joan
• August 22, 2018
• 6 Comments

My son’s girlfriend is moving into her first  apartment this week and since I have a few extra pieces of furniture lying around I told her to shop my house.  Her style is not quite as shabby chic, rusty and crusty as mine but she still managed to find a few pieces she could use.

When she asked if I had an extra a dresser, I had to say no but I just might have a source. Back in January, my sister-in-law had contacted me about taking this piece off her hands that had sat in her basement for 20 years.  She had started to take the paint off but had only managed to strip 2 drawers before giving up.

Was it still available? Yes indeed.

Heading over, I was beginning to regret my decision to take it.  She’s still texting me  “It’s heavy as lead. You have a lot of rebuilding to do. I know you can make it beauteous!”

Sight unseen, I was beginning to have doubts.

This is the sight that greeted us when we drove up.  Uh Oh. From the back, I thought the dresser was missing a leg, but it turns out that half of the back slats were resting right on the ground.

It turns out, my brother had rescued the dresser from the dumpster but had never gotten around to finishing his transformation.

Made of solid oak and having dovetailed drawers he was definitely worth saving. (The dresser, not my brother.)

The insides of the drawers had an odd, musty, moldy smell, the bottoms of the drawers were warped, a couple had holes and the yellow paint had tons of drips.

The back panels that were resting on the ground had managed to slip out of their channel.

OK, this guy did need a little work, but he wasn’t ready for the dumpster just yet.

The back panels were easy enough to realign with a little sledge hammer muscle.  Put all the slats back in their groove and  pound into place.

Remember the Wonder Lock ’em Tite Chairs , I used for my Grandma’s chair, and my wobbly table?  I had just enough to run along the seam in the back to secure the sagging wood.  I must say, this is my new favorite glue and it’s the third time in as many weeks that I’ve used it for furniture repairs.

I was only going to replace the bottoms of a few of the drawers but they all seemed to have  issues so they all had to go.

Use the old drawer bottoms as templates for where to mark and cut the new wood.  This is 1/4″ inch plywood.  I had to get a 4’x8′ sheet because Home Depot didn’t have anything smaller, but on the bright side, I was able to do all the drawers with lots of leftovers.

Slide the new drawer bottoms into the slots where the old bottoms had been and nail.

Fresh and clean.  Can you tell which drawer I haven’t tackled yet?

If you have an old piece of furniture, take it outside for this next step…sanding.  Whether I used chalk paint or not, all the surfaces had to be well sanded to get rid of all the old paint drips, glossy paint, chipped edges and chippy paint.  Assume there could be lead in the paint and use a dust mask.

Can you see all the drips in the yellow paint?  Those drips were everywhere but the sanding worked well to eliminate them.

Use a lint free cloth to get rid of all the dust from sanding.

The repairs are done, all that’s left is the paint. I needed two coats of paint and two coats of clear wax to finish the piece.

The back is holding steady and not resting on the ground any more.

The knobs were leftover from when I got my cabinets refaced and they work perfect with the new grey and white paint scheme.

I really, really wanted to distress the edges, but like I said, the recipients taste is not quite as shabby chic as mine.

Not ready for the dumpster quite yet.

Stay inspired.

Shared at Talk of the Town,

Salvaged Junk Projects

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