Antique Dresser Makeover: Blending Dixie Belle Chalk Paint and Embellishing With Gemstone Mouse, WoodUBend and Transfers
Antique pieces of furniture have the best bones in my opinion. They have pretty carvings, great details, dovetail joints, are built to last and they have THE BEST legs! Am I right? The legs are like no other. So when I find one of these beautiful pieces, I really enjoy bringing it back to life and giving it new purpose.
This antique dresser was one of those pieces. Great bones, fabulous legs, and in tip top shape. It just needed a new look.
We started by giving the piece a good sanding to remove any minor dings and scratches, smooth out any surface bumps and also give our paint a better surface to lie on. All deeper scratches and dings that couldn’t be removed by sanding were filled with Dixie Belle Mud. Once all repairs were made, the piece was given a thorough cleaning using White Lightening by Dixie Belle. Next, it got 2 coats of BOSS primer to prevent any bleed through and block any odors that can be common in these older pieces. As soon as all the prep work was complete, it was time for the fun part. Deciding what new look this beautiful piece should have.
This dresser had some beautiful bead detail going down the side of it but the fronts were rather plain and flat. So I dressed those up by adding WoodUBend Mouldings. Have you heard of them yet? They’re appliques that once heated, can bend and mold to whatever you’re applying them to. For this piece, I didn’t need to bend them as I applied them to the drawer fronts of my dresser. But boy what a big difference it made to this piece. If you’d like to try these, you can find them here. https://dixiebellepaint.com/hidden/woodubend/
I’ve been dying to do a nice green piece since the last bench we built and painted. So… I went looking for my options. Dixie Belle has a great lineup of colors in their chalk line of paint. I hadn’t used Collard Greens before so thought I’d give it a try. I just needed something to blend it with… I thought about using a white but didn’t want to lose the depth of the Collard Greens so decided to go with another shade of green and picked Dried Sage.
I blended the two colors together and used the darker of the two colors to frame the piece and lightened up the middle with the lighter color. When using chalk style paints, you’ll want to keep your paint wet while blending so the colors can kind of melt together. By doing this you create another color, a transition color, that is a combination of the main colors you’re using. It allows your colors to go from one to the other without so much of a stark contrast or line between them. It helps soften it. You can keep your paint wet by misting it with a water bottle. Misting bottles work best and Dixie Belle has a great one you can pick up here. https://dixiebellepaint.com/continuous-fine-mist-spray-bottle-8-oz/
She was beautiful with paint alone but I decided I wanted to do a little more for her by highlighting her details and adding a beautiful magnolia flower design from the new Dixie Belle Belles and Whistles line of transfers. I choose Magnolia Garden because the colors of the florals complimented my paint so well. Don’t you agree?
After adding the transfer, I wanted to make the beaded detail and the WoodUBend Mouldings I added really pop. There’s no better way to do this than to apply a little Gemstone Mousse to really make them stand out. I chose the color Amber because it looked fab with my olive green paint colors scheme.
Once all this was done, I sealed the piece to help protect it and keep that beautiful new look lasting for years to come. I sealed it using Best Dang Wax in clear. Nothing, and I mean nothing, feels better than the soft, buttery, smoothness of a buffed wax on furniture.
If you’d like to watch a video of this process, I have a few posted on Youtube. You can check out the Amber Gemstone Mousse application here. https://youtu.be/5d7ybpABEck
You can check out the painting process here. https://youtu.be/Z5479sDmd8U
You can watch and learn how to apply the new Dixie Belle transfers here. https://youtu.be/ItGhepTSUG4
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Xoxo
Tyler
