It’s September 1st and I just realized that Wednesday (August 29th) marked Ugly Duckling’s one year Bloggiversary! WOW. I can’t believe a whole year has passed since I published my first post TRUCK DRESSER. I can’t even wrap my head around all that I’ve learned over the past year – mostly from people like you – wonderfully creative people with the most astounding “outside of the box” COOL ideas. I think that’s my favorite thing about blogging – I am able to be more creative by sharing and learning from others than I could ever be on my own. So THANK YOU!!!
In honor of Ugly Duckling’s first birthday, I thought I’d re-publish my first post adding in some new thoughts (in italics) for you… and show you how it’s been recently updated!
August 29th, 2011:
TRUCK DRESSER
My son is OBSESSED with trucks. In fact when he wakes up in the morning and stands up in his crib, that’s the first word to come out of his mouth {this is still the case!!!}…. so after walking by this poor abandoned dresser in the back lane several times, I actually slowed the stroller down and had a closer look and started thinking I could do something with it. I mentioned it to my husband and the look on his face when he said that YES, he had in fact seen it sitting in the lane, was not one of much encouragement. Nevertheless, he faithfully helped me lug the thing back to our garage and I waited for a few days to be inspired. I knew I wanted to do something involving trucks for my sons bedroom, but wasn’t sure just what, until I was changing my sons diaper one day and there it was right in front of me… (not what you’re thinking)! His baby blanket that I have over top of the changing table was the combination of perfect colors and truck designs for his new dresser.
Here it is before:
Now this dresser was in pretty rough shape when I brought it back, as it had been sitting outside in the lane for at least a week. It had quite a bit of damage on the top at the back (in the back right corner there was actually a chunk of wood missing and the other corner was badly warped from water damage). Sooooo, I began by planing off some of the wood at the back to even out the surface where the wood had warped, then I covered it with wood filler. The other end was trickier. I ended up inserting a small piece of wood (I used a Home Depot stir stick) into the gap at the back with wood glue and when it was dry, used wood filler to build it up until is was flush with the rest of the surface. Then took my orbital sander and sanded the crap out of it!
Finally, I’m ready to start priming the sucker. I found some old Zinsser primer in the garage and got down to business. It wasn’t till later when I tried to wash my brushes with soap and water that I realized that this was an oil-based primer…. oops! I tried paint thinner and this didn’t work either, so had to make a trip to the store for ammonia (this worked like a charm – who knew?!).
Now it’s starting to look like a real dresser!! Wow! I’m impressed.
Here it is primed. I used three coats of Zinsser primer, sanding lightly between coats.
And…
Voila!! I painted it in Antique White and Otter Brook (Behr), and applied 2 coats of satin polyurethane. Notice the truck hardware… I found these adorable truck knobs at Pottery Barn Kids and couldn’t resist…
OK – so I’ve definitely learned a few things this past year… I had no idea what chalk paint was when I started this post, and now I’ve become it’s biggest fan! Also, I learned quickly that I will NEVER use Polyurathane EVER AGAIN on white or light colored paint. Over the next three weeks, the dresser gradually turned yellow and streaky. It was awful. Now I only use the latex poly acrylic in a satin finish.
– it didn’t hurt that they were 50% off! Originally I was going to stencil trucks onto the dresser, but after finding the knobs, decided that these stand so nicely on their own! Finally, my first official project complete.
So… my beautiful first project turned an awful yellow color and has been torturing me ever since. I recently got around to re-painting it and decided to change the look a bit. This time I used CeCe Caldwell’s chalk paint in Young Wheat {for the body} and Vintage White for the drawers. I finished the entire thing with CeCe Satin Finish. The knobs also had to be painted to match the dresser.
Here’s the new version:
The crappy photos don’t really do it justice. The color is much nicer than it appears {I was taking this photo at night with no flash}.
Linking up with the parties listed here as well as:
DIY Showoff
Debbie Doos
Coastal Charm
Tip Junkie
Savvy Southern Style
Shabby Creek Cottage
Redoux
French Country Cottage
Funky Junk Interiors
Miss Mustard Seed