Ugly Dresser Turned French Distressed Chic

Our guest room is a modge podge of various pieces of furniture that either do not fit in other rooms, or are awaiting their new home. One such piece of furniture is the tall dresser from our original bedroom set. When I found an antique dresser and refinished it for our bedroom the old dresser made its way into the guest room, sitting vacant and ugly in the corner of the room. 

before - ugly and outdated

I finally tired of looking at it looking all sad and piled with odds and ends that also did not have a home, so I went into my paint stash in the basement to find a suitable color to paint it. I normally never find the color I like the first time and I am somewhat a hoarder of paint samples. I simply cannot pass up the mis-tinted paint display at any home improvement store without seeing if there is something I just may use down the road. 

I found a nice pale blue/grey tinted paint and mixed up my chalk paint concoction (1 cup of paint with 2 tbsp non-sanded grout and 2 tbsp water). The first coat always leaves a little of the wood showing through, but I love chalk paint as you cannot actually mess it up! Not the color I was looking for so I mixed up a little slate grey with some white and my chalk paint mixture - the second coat was just what I was aiming for. 

I left the base pretty basic, just light sanding with 800 grit sandpaper and distressing along the details to smooth the finish before waxing. The drawers were distressed a bit with 200 grit sandpaper, then 800 to smooth the finish and then waxed. I like the way you can see not only the wood but also the first layer of paint that I applied. 

after - pretty and functional 

I decided not to attached the doors on top and instead added baskets to keep everything organized. Original hardware was kept - I thought about painting it but I liked the way it went with the new paint colors.