The Painted Willows: Raining Day Dresser

I'M BACK! It's been FOREVER since I lasted posted on here! I've missed sharing my life with and my projects with you but taking a break from the blog has given me some new perspective and helped me to reprioritize a few things in my life! It has also reinvigorated my passion for decorating my home and painting furniture, and just being creative for the sake of it instead of feeling pressured to!
God has been teaching me so much through this time too! It has not been an easy few months in my world but He has been teaching me truly what it means to trust in Him and to have hope even when your circumstances do not seem very hopeful! He is teaching me that sometimes you have to go through a storm to see the rainbow at the end! Which brings me to a little project I've been working on...

Here's a "before" picture of the dresser. As you can see it was painted brown by its previous owner and some of the brown was chipping off.

I call it my "raining day dresser", I call it that because I started painting in way back in December on a raining day and then I finished it a few days ago on another raining day. That might not seem very significant to you but here on the central coast of California, we haven't been getting very many raining days!

As I was finishing the dresser the other day I began to think about how the rain and storms signify troubling times in our life but it was because of the rain I was able to spend time creating something I find beautiful! God does this too in our lives if we let Him. He will use the storms and hard times to create something beautiful in us!

This is the promise God has for us when we go through suffering, Romans 5:3-4 we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Here's a quick overview of how I painted my "raining day dresser". I started by painting the entire dresser Old White Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. It took several coats to get good coverage, as is usually the case when painting a piece white.

Next I used painter's tape to tape off vertical lines on the front of the dresser and next I carefully painting the stripes a navy blue color (it was some left over latex paint I had from when I painted my laundry room). Next I sanded the stripes, first with my electric hand sander and next by hand, to give it a worn look. I also sanded and distressed around all the edges of the dresser.

I waxed it first with Annie Sloan Clear Wax and then I used Annie Sloan Dark Wax (mixed with some paint thinner to give it a thinner consistency). Finally I buffed the piece with a soft cloth.I'm excited to be sharing with you again here on the blog! Soon I will be showing how I put together this fun wall art that's hanging above my dresser, so stay tuned for more!