Ok, confession time... I love yard sale... yard sales, garage sales, estate sales... I love it all.
I love the idea that I can see "something" in what someone else wants to give away... Yes, 9 times out of 10, the stuff people have strewn out on their lawns are old utensils, used clothes, and broken appliances... but every now and then, if you look REALLY hard (or just get lucky), you'll find a gem with some potential.Insert, this little baby I scored for $30 beans.
Another personal confession: I hate wood. Not like the ACTUAL wood-wood, but just the 1970's, blonde, way-too-boring, everyone-and-their-grandmother-had-a-piece-like-this wood. I like things that are different... fun.... exciting... and "UNIQUE" (my FAVORITE word). So I knew that I would want to paint this sucka...Also, maybe next uglies thing opposed to plain wood, is brass... why oh why, Dear God, would anyone every make something in brass?! The good news is that with a handy little can of spray paint, brass can turn oil rubbed bronze (the purdiest).
The only bad news about my little Lingerie Chest find is that the INSIDE of drawers are lined with felt... and super glued to stay that way. So instead of destroying the inside of the drawers, i thought "hey, why not just spray paint the knobs first, cover them up, then paint the wood?"
(Holy moley... what did I do?)
Oh my... ummm... wow.... well, ummm... I think I starred at this in disgust for about 15 min... and left it outside overnight, in the dark, hoping it would be prettier in the morning. Spoiler Alert: it wasn't.
Oh well, time to put on my big girl panties (enjoy that visual), and keep going! So I covered up my painted oil rubbed bronze knobs the best I could and started to prime!
(Pop quiz: how many cans of primer does it take to butcher a lingerie chest? Answer: 1.5)
(Pop quiz: how many cans of primer does it take to butcher a lingerie chest? Answer: 1.5)
So as I get down to the bottom pulls, I decide my little plan isnt going to work... bummer. So I go with Plan B... murder the felt on the inside of the drawers.
(yes, i literally took a steak knife to it to make this happen)
And what do you know?! Once its out, the screws are just waiting there for me to... umm... unscrew them (why does that sound weird?)
I then put paint tape on the inside so the inside so that GORGEOUS pink felt wouldn’t get any paint on it.
(ohhh… ahhhhh)
And continued with the spray paint.
I then put a paint primer on top of the spray paint primer (what can I say, I love to prime). But oh, what to do about the footsies?... Flip that B!
(I can say with 99% certainty that I flipped this over with a single hand in one swift motion… It would have been a youtube hit if Gus or Rocky knew how to operate a video camera… pft, lazy dogs)After the primer, I painted it my mom’s favorite color of “white”… Swiss Coffee, by Dunn Edwards… I know it looks pretty much the same as white-white, but its just a BIT more creamy and it goes with a lot more…
Via one of my favorite sites, Pinterest, I have a new love for stripes, especially Chevron stripes… like here, and here.
I thought it would be simple so I got my Frogger tape and taped away… this is where I got after an hour.
(I’m not joking)Shiezer! This is a LOT harder than it looks… lining everything up, measuring perfectly, trying, retrying, cursing at my ruler that it’s lying to me (I swear it was!). Finally, after another 45 min (and spending 4 hours so far on this project), I wanted to stop, but not after giving myself a little sneak peak at what I was working so hard on… Enter, grey.
(Yes it looks light, but I didn’t want anything that had too sharp of a contrast)
Then, wait for it, BAMB!
(oh this will work… me likey)
(oh this will work… me likey)Enter Day 2:I knew I wanted to finish it before Chris got home from Vegas (Bachelor Party… I hear someone got trapped on a roof, but when he started talking about a tiger in the bathroom, I zoned out). So I was under the very watchful eye of these two…
ANYWAY, I finished with side 1 and started on side 2…
(who doesn’t love a paint tape tree??!!)
(who doesn’t love a paint tape tree??!!)At this point, Im questioning my sanity… which seems to happen a lot when I decide to do projects that start with the saying “How long could it take?”
Side 2 done… I may have squealed when I put the last tape piece on… that is a LOT of measuring, taping, and cursing to get this far.
(seriously, I almost vote to keep it green)
But when I finish with the paint, put the drawers back in, take off the tape… I nearly peed myself with the final result.
(I mean really… come on… )
(I mean really… come on… )
From the front…
(work it)
(work it)
And the other side…
(I want to personally name each stripe… that’s literally how much time I spent on them… I feel like we have a special bond)
(I want to personally name each stripe… that’s literally how much time I spent on them… I feel like we have a special bond)And just for those who don’t want to scroll back up to the top, here is the Before/After shot.
Here’s a little break down of how much the entire project cost:
- Lingerie Chest - $30
- Spray primer - $0 (already owned)
- Paint primer - $0 (already owned)
- Swiss Coffee - $0 (already owned)
- Grey accent paint - $2.97 (small paint sampler)
- Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint - $0 (already owned)
- Paint brushes (I needed little ones for touch ups) - $4.94
-My life – minus 8 hours… (probably a couple years off the back end too)
- Total: $37.91
TOTALLY worth it! Or at least I think so… what do you guys think?! I would LOVE you’re feedback!!!
Oh, and PLEASE follow me!! Im always going fun new projects ;-)















