Today I am sharing a summer beach house dresser redo. I am really proud of the finished piece because I think it captures the spirit of the owner’s personality while still keeping the nostalgic vibe of the house.

The dresser is really, really old and had tons of paint on it! I probably spent more time stripping the top of this piece than the total time I spent stripping all the pieces I have worked on in my lifetime! Yes, I did think about abandoning the stripping – painting the entire piece would have been so much easier! But, I just couldn’t do it! This dresser has been in a family beach house at least three generations and I really thought the best way to pay homage to it was to have a little bit of the original wood intact.

After all that stripping and sanding – I can’t even fathom how many coats of paint were applied to the dresser – the piece of wood that made up the top wasn’t even very nice! The piece seems to have been homemade and possibly constructed of scrap wood. It definitely has tons of character!

I chose a dark stain for the top, hoping the finish would be a little more forgiving to the not so great quality of the wood. I chose Minwax Dark Walnut stain and added three coats of Minwax Satin Finish polyurethane.

Although the owner of the beach house loves color and would have enjoyed a bright colored dresser, the man of the house really didn’t want any color at all! I think I came up with a good compromise by staining the top of the piece and adding a little color and metallic to the drawer fronts. I know the owner well enough to know her style is definitely one that includes tons of color and plenty of glam!

For the drawer fronts, I mixed Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White with Antoinette and a touch of Graphite to create a shade of pink that coordinated well with the dark walnut stained top.

After adding a coat of Annie Sloan clear wax, I did a second coat using dark wax and finished it off with some touches of gilding wax. I added the gilding wax to the drawer pulls and top edge of the dresser.

I am thrilled with the way the dresser came out – hopefully to be enjoyed by many more generations!  I was asked to give new life to all the bedroom dressers in the house, so I am looking forward to additional inspiring pieces! Thanks for joining me for today’s makeover.

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at Finding Silver Pennies, Sand & Sisal, and Coastal Charm.