We became grandparents for the first time in March. As part our gift Papa G was getting the baby a dresser. My wonderful Daughter in law wanted a purple dresser she was going to turn the top into a changing table. They had limited room, so the dresser had to be a certain size, and we both had a style in mind. I found this gem on Craigslist, my part was to transform the dresser into her purple vision.
One drawer was chipped, I wood putted it and learned that I could not keep the very tip from "re" breaking as I sanded.
Top needed a good sanding.
Her color was Valspar Poetic Purple. Well, you can't get it in Sherwin Williams enamel. I remained calm and primed my piece.
This is tinted primer from another job, but the color is a DEEP color so it won't hurt anything. *Tip- when you take all the drawers out label the bottoms with a permanent marker, often they will only fit in one opening with old dressers. Also when you are sanding, sand the top edge of each drawer down a good 1/8 of an inch, primer and paint are thicker than stain. You'll need to sand the top of the underneath cross bar for each drawer as well. When painting the dresser paint the "inside" sides a good 1/2 of an inch. (The middle bar and the sides for all the drawer openings) Or when the drawer is closed you'll see the construction wood. Not as noticeable when it is stained. It will scream out at you when the unit is painted. Just tape off the inside walls leaving the 1/2 inch and you'll get clean paint lines. Sorry I didn't take a photo of that.
Close up of chipped drawer after putted. Looks way better, but again I could not keep the very tip from breaking off again. Yes that is SW primer. FYI you can tint primer to match the paint. (well, in the same color family, it will never be exact.)
Long long story short, the lesson learned goes as follows. If you don't like the texture of the first coat do NOT do the 2nd. STOP right here. It will NOT "smooth" out in the 2nd coat. ***If you spend all the time to sand it down, do NOT use the same paint and expect a different outcome. (Isn't that Einstein's theory of insanity? - doing the same thing and over and over again expecting a different outcome. Well, take me to the funny farm. I didn't just do that one time I did it several..) Do NOT add extra *flood (flood is an additive that you can add to paint to slow down the drying time and level out the brush marks, great stuff -sold at Home Depot) and think that will solve the problem. It JUST makes drying next to impossible. The paint takes on a gummy feel and never got a hard shell. I ended up stripping the unit ALL the way down and starting over. NIGHTMARE. (If you have never stripped anything, spring for the color change stripper. Makes your life way easier.) After it was all done I painted this thing 8 complete times. If you count the fact that you prime, then paint two coats of color. I will never use Valspar again. That is on my NO list along with Glidden. In a pinch I will use Behr premium plus ultra.
I can only take credit for the dresser. Paula has made this room adorable. (Yes, my dil and I have the same first name)
Tell me Princess Charlotte isn't worth every bit of all this hard work. I can't believe she is a month already.
Happy Painting.
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