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!

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How I get crisp lines when painting two-toned furniture

Have you noticed I've been doing a lot of two-toned french provincial style makeovers lately! I'm just love the look. Can you tell?!

I figured I would show you how I get nice crisp lines, it took a lot of trial and error but I figured out a system that works well for me!

I start by painting the piece in the color that will end up being in the groves and recessed areas. For example I painted this piece all white first. Sorry I don't have any photos throughout my process but it is pretty simple and if you have any questions please ask me in the comment section below!

I often use a white primer in this step to kill two birds with one stone, my piece is primed and ready for paint and the groves and recessed areas have their first coat of white.

Next I go ahead and paint my first coat of the main color of the piece. In this case, that means I do the first coat of gray. I roll on the paint in the large areas that are not close to my edges and then I cut in carefully near my spaces that will stay white.

I do a second coat of the main color the same way I did the first coat.

And then the fun part, well more like the tedious part :) now I go in and do several coats with my paint pen on the groves and recessed areas. The paint pen makes it really easy to get a nice straight line. But I do usually need several coats to get good coverage. Here is the paint pen I used in all of the makeovers above. I got it at Walmart in the craft section.

I also have to paint in some of the areas that the paint pen is too wide to fit in.  I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint the color Old White in all of the makeovers above, it is close to the color of the paint pen, although it does have more yellow in it, but I usually end up using antiquing wax over my pieces and you can't tell the slight variation in color.

I'm off to finish a dresser that matches the grey end tables from this post. I will be working hard painting with my painter's pen and watching Frozen with my kiddos! Life is pretty sweet :) Hope you are having a lovely day!

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