Dressing A Dresser

Using a multitude of hangers and various sizes of baskets in our closet, we had been looking for a dresser for a while. But the only ones we really liked enough to spend money on, were a bit, well... out of our current price range. (At least we have good taste, though, right?) So, we had given up hope of finding a great dresser, and hadn't given much thought to it in a few months until I made an offhanded comment about it to my grandma.

She was in a fabulous mood, having just found out that my grandpa had emptied the dishwasher for her, and told me that unloading the dishwasher and folding clothes were the things she despised the most.

"You should just get big baskets to put in your closet and throw all your clothes in there. That way you don't have to fold them--that's what we do. :)"

"Why?"

"Oh, I don't know, we don't have a dresser."

That's when she freely offered up the "chifforobe" in the basement.

"You  mean the thing you keep all your wrapping paper in?"

"Ya! Go down and take a look at it."

So I snapped a few pictures, opened the doors to peek inside, and tried to yank open the dusty, warped yellow drawers. I had my foot pushing against it, and both hands on the handles, when my grandma called from upstairs,

"Some of the doors are jammed because of the moisture. It'll be fine once you get it out of the basement!"

So, I wiped my hands, texted Jk, and excited accepted their generous offer.

A week, several dirty spider-web-infested rags, and a couple heavy lifts in and out of our car later... we had a dresser in our garage!

We had a bit of 'Secret Passage' gray from our room upstairs that we had planned to dress the dresser in. And being told by my mom that gray was a lovely (and very Swedish) color, I was completely sold.

I spent the afternoon washing all the 50 years of dirt and dust from it's mustard surface, and then covered it in a couple coats of new paint.

After it had dried, JK and I went to work distressing (aka sanding) it a bit. I rejected my mom's suggestion of painting another color underneath to peer through because, well honestly I didn't want the extra work. As it turns out, the yellow looked absolutely wonderful with the gray.

I just loved looking at all its little quaint details, and adding some charm to it!

Then, we added a clear satin top-coat to protect it a bit better before we added the hardware.

Our first stop for hardware was Anthropologie. We found these amazing fox knobs for the doors and some crystal ones for the drawers. But after visiting our trusty Lowes and another helpful suggestion from my mother (Swedish furniture usually has big wooden knobs), we opted out of the crystal ones for cheaper and more cozy wooden ones that we painted to match.

After letting it dry (and air out a bit), we excitedly brought it into our bedroom and filled it with folded clothes :) And I'll tell you what, I don't mind the folding at all--it just makes me so thankful to have a dresser.

And you want to know the most wonderful part about this dresser? These darling original dark-stained cabinet drawers. I feel like my clothing just went up in value when I see them so beautifully displayed in these. :)

And I'll tell you what, spending a day painting, and $25 for hardware was WELL worth this truly vintage dresser with dovetailed joints (they made stuff quality back then) and loads of charm. So, I wish you all the best at searching for and dressing up your own vintage finds!!