now i know some of you might think it’s sacrilege to paint over a wooden piece, but the fact of the matter is that this particular chest of drawers only cost me R300 (that’s like, US $40) – and it basically just had a shoddy veneer that was chipping in places.

i also took major shortcuts in it’s ‘resoration’ as i had to do everything in my tiny flat in an afternoon. i would have preferred to sand the entire thing down and give it a lighter oak finish, but that would have involved way more admin than i was prepared to go through for my wee chest right now.

so this is what i did step by step:

• unscrewed all the door knobs
• i washed this baby down with sugar soap – it was pretty gross (i imagine it stood in some kids room since it was built, it even had old eighties stickers on it)
• gave the drawers 1 coat of plain old water based acrylic (in white, obviously) – applied with a roller
• when that dried, i gave it another coat of plascon velvaglo (also white)
• i gave the frame one quick coat of nova dye woodstain in mahogany (leftover from another project) – applied with a roller sponge. this stuff is amazing, is dries in seconds & you don’t need to varnish afterwards.
• i took the doorknobs apart, painted the outside black and the inside gold

aaaand… that’s it! it came out pretty okay in the end, no?

inspired by this particular before & after over at penny people designs (which is a far better execution, but probably easier to do if you start with an untreated base)