DIY: The Dresser (Part 2)…

Man oh man, Sunday morning I wake up and I’m fuming because I have that dresser in the basement and I have to go back to Home Depot again. I can’t very well leave the dresser the color it is and I don’t want to move it upstairs unless it’s white. My only other solutions would be to put it back on craigslist and that doesn’t make any sense because I still need a dresser. So finally at 1 pm I force myself to go back and get my supplies. 1 and a half hour later I have everything:

But wait it costs me $157.00. How does this happen when YHL only spent $31.51 to include the cost of their dresser. Well I should mention that I speed read and when I go to their total I didn’t actually read the total tally up details, the majority of that stuff they already owned. Had I factored in the cost of the $50 sander and $22 dollar primer, or the $6 in paint brushes/rollers, etc. I would have realized this dresser was really going to cost me close to $200.00. Which was fine, but now I’m stressed because I’m thinking oh I hope this turns out alright. I mean how awesome would this be if I had the whole “this one time when I refinished a dresser” story verses a “the one time I spent $200 bucks to throw out a CL dresser” story. So I get home, spread out all my supplies, put the drop clothes down and get the dresser prepped for refinishing:

I’ve got such anxiety about this I don’t even eat lunch and I get to sanding. Important lesson #1 wear a hair cap.

I must say sanding the dresser wasn’t super hard. I’m looking at my handiwork and I am feeling a little better, but I’m just not sure how this is going to end up.

Next you have to prime it and I end up letting it dry over night, because I’ve exhausted myself.

The whole dresser thing is a long drawn out process, not giving me the instant gratification I need. I have to put three coats of white paint and then the poly which takes two days to completely dry. I will tell you in between the second and third coat of paint I did tell Jedd I didn't think it was going to look good. I could still see the grain of the wood peeking out, the third coat really made a huge difference.

Finally after five long days it’s ready to move back upstairs. I decide to keep the existing hardware because I just want to use the thing. Sorry the pictures are so dark, I didn’t realize until just now but I’ll have to put better ones up.

The dresser is actually white, though you can’t tell in the pictures because of the lighting. But you get the point. So now I have a hand sander, almost a whole gallon of left over primer and some poly. I’m on craigslist every day now looking for something else I can refinish. Looking back it wasn’t bad and finally I finished something. Plus it was nice after we got the dresser upstairs I looked at Jedd and said “see I showed you, I can refinish a dresser and it looks really good”.

DIY: The Dresser (Part 1)…

In the apartment there wasn’t enough space in our room for both of us to have a dresser. I needed one that would fit in a closet in the hallway and knowing it would be temporary I shelled out a few bucks and purchased a small white one. When it came time to move into the house Jedd took one look at the dresser and said it wouldn’t make the move. I thought he was wrong so we moved it…

Damn I hate it when he’s right. So I start looking and I’m just floored by what stores are asking for dressers. If it’s real wood they want several hundred dollars which wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m just not seeing exactly what I want. So then I start looking at craigslist and the prices are more reasonable but the color of every dresser I see is all wrong. At this time it just so happens YHL starts a project where they have to refinish some furniture they got which links back to them refinishing a dresser. So I casually mention to Jedd that I’m going to do this; refinish a dresser myself. He’s skeptical which just infuriates me. How dare he question (he doesn’t actually question he just gives me his “sure this phase will pass” look) my ability to refinish a dresser. Now before you go getting all defensive about how unsupportive he is I must admit I’m a bit of a quitter. The list of things I care to admit to have quit (so far in our 8 year relationship) include:

1. Golf: I did purchase the cutest set of pink golf clubs when we first started dating explaining to him I needed to look the part to really take it seriously. I played golf once with these clubs yet we’ve moved them four times. But it’s not my fault Golf is boring

2. Water/Juice fast: Well it was just a dumb idea.

3. Marathon training: So once when we were with the Joneses I decided I was going to do a marathon, then I talked myself down to a half marathon all within a 10 minute car ride. Then I got home and decided a 5k would be better because I’m an ugly runner. I think I did a total of three 5k (at a fast walk) and moved past it.

Um I’m sure there are more, but you get the point, plus I’m past this list because you know…I like to quit things.

So back to the dresser. Now I’m all about proving Jedd wrong so the next day I get on CL and Google dresser and magically I see a post about a $25 dresser. I am jazzed $25 you can’t beat that. I pick it up and end up driving around for three days with it in the car.

Now I’m committed to doing this thing. I need supplies and I get on YHL and make myself a list thinking gosh this looks pretty easy. I’m also seeing how others did this and it’s soooo much cheaper than buying a new dresser. The list I come up with is as follows:

1. Hand sander

2. 200 grit sand paper

3. 80 grit sand paper

4. Plastic drop cloth

5. Cloth drop cloth

6. Gloves

7. Frog Tape

8. Kilz Clean Start No-Voc Primer

9. 2 small foam rollers

10. 2 inch paint brush

11. Things to pour paint in

12. Dust rags

13. White semi gloss latex paint

14. Minwax polygloss

15. Hardware



Fast forward to Saturday (Labor Day weekend) and we have on our to do’s to go to Hell to make my mom a spare key and I’m going to run in and get my 15 items. I should start this by saying we only had 30 minutes to get in and out.

As you can imagine it didn’t go well. First off it was packed and every time I stopped to get something some Home Depot employee would engage me and totally ruin my concentration. All came to a head at the drop cloths; I had gotten everything except for the paint and the drop cloths. I go to the isle with the drop cloths and someone (thankfully) had taken one out of the package already so I decide to spread it out in the isle to see if it’s the size I need. As I’m spreading it out this employee starts in on me “How much do you need, how big is the space your trying to cover” to which I’m like well I don’t know so I’m trying to figure it out, to which the employee snatches up the drop cloth and is like “well you’re not going to be able to cover the whole room and open all the packs” to which I say “first off I didn’t open that it was already open” and he’s all “well you should figure it out the size of the space first” I just leave, I’m super pissed cause I’m thinking where are you guys when I need some help, when I don’t need you your all interrupting my concentration and stressing me out. Now I’m hyperventilating and I see Jedd and he’s like do you have everything and I just go “f*ck it” and I leave the basket and we get the key and check out. He’s like what happened and I’m just like I needed more time I’m going to go back tomorrow.

I leave Home Depot thinking “Well if I abandon this project now all I’m out is $25.00 and a little pride”…