Floating Petals Dresser

I am so excited with how this project turned out! Just to refresh your memory, this is an antique dresser that I bought off of Craigslist for $35.00. 

I loved the style and the charming wood  casters on the bottom.  However, the veneer was bubbling and peeling and needed to come off.

I took a heat gun and a putty scraper and removed the veneer from the bottom three drawers and the top of the dresser. It came off quite quickly on two of the drawers, rather it just snapped, and broke off. It was the same situation with the top of the dresser. The third drawer required more work. After removing the veneer, I had to use the heat gun and putty knife once again to scrape and remove the Hyde glue. I neglected to take a picture of this process.

The veneer was fine on the sides of the dresser. I opted to give it a good sanding all over, then primed it with some primer I had on hand. I also went over individual areas with  Kilz Oil Based Spray Primer which always provides great coverage!

I decided that I would decoupage some fabric to the front of the drawers, but was undecided as to what color to use and what style. After weeks of searching, I was drawn to the home decor fabric, Waverly Floating Petals in Blue, that I spotted at my local JoAnn's. Lucky for me, it was 40% off that day and I bought a yard. 

I measured and cut  the fabric  all the way around, so that it was about 1/2" larger than the front of the drawer. I then placed the fabric on some wax paper, and applied Mod Podge to the entire front side of the fabric and allowed it to dry.

 This was so that it would be easier to cut, and not fray when I went to resize it. This was a tip that I picked up from the blog, Mod Podge Rocks!  One thing that I neglected to do, but should have done in hindsight, was to wash the fabric first so that it would have shrunk up a bit.

The next step was to apply Mod Podge to the drawer front, place the fabric on top, smooth any bubbles and let it dry.

Once it was dried, I turn the drawer upside down, with the fabric on top of a cutting board, and took an Exacto knife and cut around the edge of the drawer front to trim off the excess fabric. I initially tried a rotary cutting tool, but couldn't get the angle and found that the Exacto knife worked better.

Then I applied 3 layers of Mod Podge glue  to the top of the fabric to seal it. I let it dry between each coat, and used a damp rag to smooth out any bubbles I came across.  Had I prewashed the fabric, I am certain that I would have had less issues with the bubbles and the fabric stretching as much as it did.

The top drawer got a coat of Rustoleum's Slate Blue, as well as the drawer pulls on the three bottom drawers. I opted to use the existing hardware since I liked them initially. The drawer pulls on the top drawer were painted white to give it a contrast from the blue, and the entire dresser was just painted with a white latex semi-gloss paint that I had on hand from a project I had done two years ago.

So here it is all finished!

I am pleased with how it turned out. It does have a few bubbles here and there, but I know what to do differently next time.

Here is a  close up of the knobs.

Happy to be done with this one, and happy with where my creativity lead me.

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