Seeing Green!

With all of the rain in Ft. Collins that we have had lately, we have been wondering if we would ever see the sun again. Well...out it came and made my painting projects dry in a jiff!! So glad to have cool temps and warm sun to speed my projects along. Here is a little project I did over the weekend. Solid wood chest with dovetail drawers. HEAVY piece! I thought about doing just a plain shabby chic "creamy white" but decided to punch it with some of the green I had picked up at the dump. A gorgeous spring green. I think I must have been influenced by all of the beautiful green the rain has produced. Take a look at the before.

The top of the chest had some rings on it and scratches so I sanded a bit with a medium grit to smooth things out. Some of the drawer pulls were off so I had to put them back on and tighten others. No big deal. The only problem with this piece whatsoever is just it's weight! It is so heavy that I had trouble moving it around. I put two coats of green paint on it. Painted over the hinges as well. Here's what it looked like along the way.

First coat of green paint was easy. Painted directly over the wood. Applied it directly over the drawer pulls...check out the next photo.

The paint is a gorgeous deep sage green. It looke white in this photo for some reason but it's not.

After both coats were dry, I used 3X sand paper to distress the drawers, top and sides of chest. I did this with what I call a random distress technique. It puts distressed areas on the piece, not just around the edges. You have to use an artful eye and place the sanded areas so they don't end up in a pattern.

A photo of the top of the dresser so you can see how the distressing is placed.

I finished the chest with a coat of polycrylic. Beautiful. Take another look at the before and after.

Total project time with the sun's help just under 2 hours. I purchased this throw away at Goodwill. Solid pine chest with dovetail construction and in great shape with all the drawers working. Look at it now. It is in my booth for $195.00 Happy Thrifting! XOXO the thrift addict.