Home Industrial: Before and After: Campaign Dresser

I FINALLY got around to addressing my campaign dresser. It has been sitting in it's "natural state" for almost a year now, holding down the fort in our formal living room. Truthfully, it didn't look terrible in there, but I've always had different plans in mind for it.

Using my trusty furniture sliders, I shimmied it into place and got to work. Do you own furniture sliders? They are an impatient girl's best friend. It's amazing what you can move by yourself with these things.

Here is the requisite "before" shot. You can see the before before here when I first picked it up from a Craig's List seller.

Of course, my adorable partner in crime was on the scene to "help". (ie. crawl away with my screwdriver about 100 times).

First things first - I had to remove all the brass bits. And there are A LOT of them. You can see in these images that the top of the dresser really wasn't in great condition. Lots of scratches, dings and general wear. Not unusual for a Craig's List purchase of vintage furniture so I wasn't scared.

It's funny...without the hardware, there's really nothing all that special about this piece. The brass details are like the jewelery that make it sparkle.

I got out my favorite wood filler and got to work. There is little you can't fix using a tube of this stuff.

Elmer's Carpenter Wood Filler in Natural

There were two major areas of damage - this is one. The edge of one of the drawers had a pretty significant chip.

Nothing I can't fix with wood filler! Don't be afraid to use this stuff liberally. Once it dries, you can sand it to a smooth finish.

All "repaired". I filled in all the chips and also went over any deep scratches on the top with wood filler and a putty knife.

Then the party moved to the garage for sanding and priming.

This is my "go to" primer for project like this. If you have a dark wood stained piece of furniture that you want to paint a light color, this is your best bet.

Zinnser Cover Stain Primer

It is, however, oil based which makes it a bit of a pain to clean up. I avoid all that paint thinner brush cleaning business by using these $2 sponge brunches. When I'm done, I can just dispose of it at my local recycling center. PLEASE don't throw your oil based paint brushes in the trash! Besides being flammable, it's horrible for the environment.

I was totally conflicted as to what color to paint this beauty. I've had paint chips for both of these colors up on my office inspiration board for months now, just dying to use them. I knew the teal would look amazing with the brass details but I also loved the light robin's egg blue.

I put the call out on Facebook for help and the lighter blue won out (which means I have to find somewhere else to get my teal fix!)

I have to say, after painting really detailed pieces like this and this, this campaign dresser was a breeze! All those flat surfaces! I literally rolled on the first coat in 10 minutes flat.

I did 3 coats of paint, 2 coats of water based polyurethane and then a high gloss layer. More on this in a future post.

The last step was polishing up all that brass hardware to a shiny finish using my trusty Brasso.

And here it is in its new home - the finishing piece in our guest room!

The dresser that was there before was just a placeholder (albeit one that had been there for 6 years!) Doesn't it look SO much better than what was there before?

Remember the vintage faux bamboo mirror I snagged at the Raleigh Flea for $20? It's been sitting in a corner waiting for just the right spot and I think I finally found one. I love how the gilded wood of the frame picks up on the brass bits on the campaign dresser.