Heirloom Re-Do

This was my dad's dresser when I was too little to see the top of it.  It's from the sixties, really solid, made of pecan.  I have been craving color for a while now (every piece of furniture in our bedroom is some sort of wood), so my husband and I decided to give my favorite heirloom a little color.  

Sorry about the crappy iPhone pic, but this is what the dresser looked like BEFORE.

The first thing I did was give the whole thing a sanding. Especially the top, where the finish was flaking off. Then I painted the entire thing in two coats of latex paint. I chose an old Martha Stewart color that Sherwin Williams used to carry.   It looked really minty and gross when I finished and I didn't think I was going to like it.  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this part of the process.  Believe me, it was pretty ugly.

After the paint was completely dry, my husband removed some of the paint to let the finished wood underneath show through.  He did this by using lacquer thinner.  This stuff is very smelly, so we did it outside and he wore gloves for the whole process.

I like how he just went over the parts that might have naturally been worn off with time.

After the distressing was finished, he painted on a thin layer of oil based glaze in burn sienna on sections of the dresser.  (Don't cover the whole thing, because it may dry before you are able to rub it off.  Just do section by section.)

Then he quickly wiped over the layer of glaze with a clean rag, leaving some in the cracks and crevices of the dresser.  This dresser was perfect for this process, because as you can see - LOTS of crevices.  He went through a LOT of rags.

This is what it looks like after most of the glaze is removed.  He repeated the painting and the wiping until all of the dresser was antiqued.

See the difference the glaze makes in the color?  The drawers have been warmed up quite a bit, so I really love the color now.

When the glazing was finished, a layer of lacquer (in satin) was sprayed on to protect the finish.  Make sure to do this BEFORE you put the hardware back on.

Here it is in it's happy little home!

I say "we" gave this dresser a face lift, but it was really my husband, Scott, who performed his magic.  He does this kind of thing for a living, you know.

Now, what can we paint next?!