Ombré watercolored dresser

Love, love, love this ombré dresser! A few weeks ago I was contacted by my client to custom paint a dresser for her baby nursery. She was looking for a taller dresser but not a chest of drawers and I had the perfect piece in mind! This!

Beautiful isn’t t it!?

Before quitting my job, I used to walk over to the Goodwill on my break when the weather was nice. It was the best part of the job. On one of those lunch breaks, I saw this and knew I had to grab it! I always joke because you can always tell which vehicle is mine in the parking lot because I always have furniture in the back. The guy who helped me at Goodwill was hesitant to sell me this because it was in such rough shape but the discoloration, missing hardware and chipping veneer didn’t scare me. It wasn’t until we were loading it in my truck that one of the drawers fell apart, it hit me that I definitely have my work cut out for me.

I originally wanted to paint this black and it sat around in my workspace for a few months. When my client reached out to me I didn’t even consider this piece because honestly, I kind of forgot about it. I sent her pictures and measurements and it fit her needs exactly!

We tossed around ideas, she wanted something to match her color scheme of gray, blush and bronze/ gold. I knew we’d get along great when she showed me her gold crib 😍 #goals! Here are some of the design elements:

We finally decided an ombré would be a super chic addition to her space! She decided on colors “Fluff” and “Apricot” by Dixie Belle paint. I love Apricot because it can be lightened to the perfect shade of blush and has hints of orange, so it not TOO pink.

Originally, my client wanted to look for her own hardware but wasn’t having much luck. I stopped at my local Hobby Lobby and found some awesome options and sent her a selection to pick from:

I told her to keep in mind the color could be easily changed to match the gold accents in the crib. She loved the white ones and best of all they were 1/2 off! We scored six for only $20! I used Rust-oleum Metalic Pure Gold. This gold is not a true gold leaf color but more bronze, which is exactly what we wanted.

The white coating on the hardware allowed the spray paint to adhere perfectly without needing a primer.

First, I needed to remove the peeling veneer, sand the body and fill the original holes with bondo. Once the bond hardened, I drilled the new holes for the hardware, using the old holes as my guide. The sizes weren’t too far off, but I needed to camouflage the old holes from peeping through the sides of the new hardware.

Once the body was sanded smooth, holes were patched and the new hardware holes were drilled, I painted the whole piece with the Fluff color. After allowing it to dry, I used Apricot at the bottom and blended the fluff and apricot to give it an ombré effect. Inside of blending the Apricot to white, I “feathered” the paint to give it a watercolored appearance.

Once the apricot dried, I applied a top coat and did two coats after allowing time for it to dry. For the top coat I used Dixie Belle Clear coat in Satin. Once dried, I installed the new hardware.

For the final step, I removed the old drawer liners. They were stuck on pretty good, so using a heat gun helped loosen up the glue! There was glue residue and slight discoloration so I put in a fresh set of liners. These are my go to:

Voila! She’s done! My client was so happy with the final outcome and so was I! It was hard parting with this one but I’m so happy it will have a chic life, in its new chic nursery 💕