I am sooo excited to share this project with you today! It’s the first time I’ve attempted any kind of extra special finish aside from solid paint. The lucky winner was this poor dresser I got for my brother about 6 months ago.

I bought it with the intention of refinishing it, but I was waiting for some sort of grand vision for his room to hit me. Right now it’s sort of a collection of any leftovers we had around the house-meaning nothing really goes together. Not that he cares, but I do. Eventually he’ll move out and I want to be left with a space that could translate to a guest room. Inspired by Miss Mustard Seed’s Union Jack creation, I got to work lightly sanding and painting the whole thing SW Naval.

 

Using SW Stolen Kiss, I painted the first part of the flag.

Using SW Creamy, I painted white stripes. At one point I started using painter’s tape, but I found that I liked the look of the freehand better.  I went back over the lines with a brush and softened the edges.

Keep in mind these colors look WAY bright in the can, but dry darker. Still, I knew I wanted to glaze to take the edge off. After some allover distressing with a medium/coarse grit block, I took some 100 grit paper and really worked on the edges. For glaze, I decided to try some DecoArt Antiquing Medium (which I used for my chalkboard frame) instead of Minwax stain. Breaking news: I LIKE IT BETTER! Yes, I’m giving up my Dark Walnut as a furniture glaze. I like that the DecoArt doesn’t smell, it cleans with water, and it feels more like paint…I found it much easier to work with. After the glaze dried, I used natural wax (still want to try dark wax) to finish the piece. I am having a serious love affair with paste wax! It’s amazing!

Here’s the finished product:

I replaced the hardware with some smaller hammer-ish finish oil rubbed bronze knobs, a steal at $0.99/ea!

Up close shot…

I’m so proud of it (do you mind me saying so?) This piece is inspiring a whole room makeover which I’ll share as I go along! I’m still looking for wall colors…

******Linked HERE*******

21 Responses

  5. Kristin

    Wow! That really turned out super cool – I have to admit I was sceptical while I was reading, but the finished dresser is awesome!

    Reply
  6. michele

    love this–what a transformation! I’ve done a a union jack pillow, but now I want to add this designs to a piece of furniture–thanks for the inspiration! I would love it if you would share this at my linky party this week.

    Reply
  10. Kate

    love it! Did you freehand the whole thing, or use some painters tape for the straight lines? How do you get the paint not to bleed under the painter’s tape? Thanks. Would love to give this a try sometime.

    Reply
    • Lovely Crafty Home

      Kate- I did use tape, but I didn’t like the super straight lines so I went back over with a small brush. I didn’t have much bleed through, but since I went over it again anyways, I just fixed any mistakes.

      Reply
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