Dresser transformation – DIY + HANDMADE + VINTAGE

Red license plate dresser.

Published on May 27, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman1 Comment

“Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.” ~Neil Gaiman

I love being an artist. It is my passion. I love the feelings that come along with creating and transforming a piece of furniture. It gives me such satisfaction to take something old, worn, and broken and restoring it and giving it a brand new life and a new purpose.

Last week I got an idea for this brown dresser and marched forward with the vision and the details came to me as I went along. Here is the before image of the dresser;

Before. Red license plate dresser by Endless Acres Farmtiques

How I transformed this dresser:

Sanded and painted red.
Applied a thin layer of Minwax stain + poly.
Removed drawer pulls and filled in holes with wood filler.
Attached rusty license plates to each drawer, for character.

Dresser after:

I hope you enjoyed this transformation!

9 drawer dresser.

Published on March 11, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman5 Comments

“As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen.“

~ Winnie The Pooh

My son just turned 10 last week. I am trying my hardest to not let his age make me feel sad about the fact that I am losing my ‘baby’ boy. It is a hard transition when they go from sweet little boy who follows mommy everywhere to becoming so independent and not needing their mommy as much any more. I miss those pounding little fists on the bathroom door every time I take a shower, I miss the tugging of the pant legs when I am needed for something, I miss the sweet calls of ‘Mommy come play with me’ from the other room. But I am also thankful to God that my son is a healthy, adventurous boy who has been with me for 10 wonderful years. He has now grown into someone who loves the Lord, enjoys a good conversation about anything that involves facts, loves getting dirty in the mud, and is one of the greatest travel buddies I’ve ever had.

Lately he has been really interested in my projects, and has been asking me what I will be working on next when I am in between projects. He has enjoyed going with me searching for my next project and I can see a huge change in him that has happened recently, where he is really understanding and appreciating the work and love I put into my furniture makeovers. As a mother, it is such a great feeling to have a son that wants to learn from you and also looks up to you. And now I also see, that even though he is getting older, he still does need me, just in different ways. This morning before school, he hugged me and said “Mom, thanks for making my new dresser and my other desk too, I really like them both.” Ahh, talk about melting a mothers heart!

I have slowly been working on getting his room together and out of all of the rooms in the house, his is still my favorite, and the closest to being ‘complete’ . Last year, I worked on making over an old desk from a thrift store for his room, and this year I have been in search of a long dresser with plenty of drawers for his clothes & toys. I was lucky enough to have a friend donate a dresser to me over the weekend and once I saw it, I knew it was exactly what I had been looking for , for my little mans room!

This is what the dresser looked like before;

I let my son pick out the colors and theme for the dresser. Below is a list of the changes that I made;

Stained the top of the dresser & legs with 3 coats of Minwax Polyshades in Classic Black.
Painted dresser & drawers in red satin paint.
Stained over the entire dresser & drawers with Minwax Poly-shades in Classic Black (which is stain + polyurethane) to give it a dirty/aged look as my son requested.
Lined the drawers with ripped out pages from a 1973 issue of Popular Science Magazine.

I decided to use the original copper pulls that were on the dresser, I just love the patina that they have and their simple, straight lines.

I completed this dresser in a day and today I am planning on setting it up in my sons bedroom to surprise him with the complete product when he gets home from school

I hope you have enjoyed my latest furniture makeover, and that you leave feeling inspired to take on a project at your house too!

Thanks for reading,

~Kelly

Rope Dresser.

Published on February 25, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

Today I woke up with a huge burst of motivation. So I ran with it. I completed 5 somewhat simple furniture transformations between 8am and 4pm. All of today’s projects were completely spontaneous, I just wandered around the house and basement looking for items to re-do and had them all out at once, jumping from one project to the other as paint dried and continued on like that for the whole day.

This dresser was purchased several years ago, it was originally a light brown, but was in bad condition, I had painted a quick coat of white paint over it last year, and it has been sitting in my daughters room ever since. Today it was begging me to give it a new look, so I did!

I sanded down the entire dresser, drilled new holes in the drawers to fit the rope pulls, and painted in relaxing a grey-blue.

Below are the before & after photos, enjoy!

Dresser Before;

Dresser After;

If you enjoy what you see here on the blog, you can also follow my DIY adventures on Facebook!
Thanks for reading,

~Kelly

Tranquil Dresser.

Published on February 12, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.” ~ James Allen

I love being by the waters edge. If you know me well, you know that I am always going, always working on something, driving the back roads, or getting my hands dirty on some project. There are a few things in life that will slow me down, and bring a sense of peace to my mind, and water is one of them. I could waste an entire day laying by a lake, or walking beside a creek. There is something so serene and calming to my heart when I am around water in nature, in some ways it makes me feel so connected to God , and I love that feeling of contentment and tranquility in my heart.

My love for water, especially Lake Superior, has formed my love for shades of blues and greens, whether its on vintage cars, or in decor in my home, like this tranquil dresser transformation I worked on yesterday.

The color is called ‘Dinner Mint’ but I really think it deserves a better name, like ‘Beach Glass’ or ‘By the Sea’ , but unfortunately I don’t name paints, I just use them. 😉

For this project, I did the following:

Sanded, primed and painted the dresser
Lightly stained the dresser
Added a coat of polyurethane
Spray painted the original dresser pulls in a hammered oil rubbed bronze spray paint from Rust-Oleum.

Dresser before:

Dresser After:

I hope you enjoyed my latest furniture revival project! To see more of my creations and keep up with my latest DIY Adventures, you can also follow me on Facebook!

Thanks for reading,

~Kelly