Dresser-Turned-TV Stand (Finally)

Seven layers of paint later, our curbside dresser is finally up and running. And by that, I mean:

A) It’s not blinding us with its blueness or making us seriously re-think our sanity.

B) It’s in its proper home in our living room as opposed to the circus.

When your sanity fails you, fear not: Benjamin Moore’s Ozark Shadows will come to the rescue.

We started this project way back in the beginning of October, when the grass was still green, the leaves were still on the trees, and the fresh buds of naivety were blooming. (Okay, that sounds like the start to a bad romance novel. And I don’t even read those things. Better not quit my day job.)

It was pretty obvious after our first coat of primer that the regular Olympic water-based stuff wasn’t going to cut it. The red stain from the wood just leaked its way through.

We tried Kilz stain-blocking water-based primer next, but still no luck. So as nasty as it is, we turned to Kilz oil-based primer. That did the trick, and we were ready to put on our top coat. We used the leftover paint from our bedroom (a pale gray), and it seemed fine outside, but once we put the dresser in our living room, I knew the color wouldn’t work. It looked totally washed out against the white wainscoting. So then we jumped to the polar opposite: Benjamin Moore’s Bermuda Blue. Yes, it is scarier than the pictures make it look, especially when paired with the rest of our subtle gray-blue living room.

Back to the drawing board. Err, the sander. Rick agreed to do the sanding if I did the painting. My upper arm muscles haven’t grown since I was approximately 5, so I am all for avoiding sanding, even the power-kind. And this particular paint didn’t go without a fight. We used Ben, the very reasonably priced Benjamin Moore line of paint-and-primer-in-one that is only a few dollars more than we were spending on crappy Olympic paint, and it’s so worth it for the extra coverage. It’s also sold at a local hardware store that frequently sends out coupons, so I’m a fan. But it’s like super-paint or something. Seriously, it dyed the paint brush bright blue.

After another coat of primer (we just used the Kilz water-based stain blocking stuff this time because Rick didn’t sand down to the wood) I put on two coats of Benjamin Moore’s Ozark Shadows, also of the super-paint Ben variety. Since it’s now December and was 22 degrees out on Saturday, unlike the balmy weather we enjoyed when beginning this marathon project, I had to paint in the kitchen. This proved to be slightly challenging in that certain animals we let live with us felt as though the dresser was their personal jungle gym.

But despite the cats’ efforts to impede our progress once again, it’s finally done.

This is the exact color I wanted from the beginning. At some point I’ll learn to listen to my instincts. In the meantime, I have officially learned that I love looking at rooms with a lot of color, but I don’t like living with lots of color. Sadly, I get tired of bold colors too quickly. So even if I had liked the color of the heinously blue dresser initially, chances are I woudn’t have in a few months. Better to bring in color in small ways that don’t require hours of our time when I want to change it. It’s really just a personal preference, I guess.

Happily, our DVD/VCR combo fits perfectly in the top right-hand drawer.

To access it via remote we just…take the front of the drawer off. Rick sawed it off for that exact purpose then attached heavy-duty magnets so it stays put. See the magnet on the left side of the drawer?

It’s Classy. The capital C is absolutely necessary, yes. It’s just that chic. Or Chic. Rick tried attaching a hinge, but then the drawer wouldn’t shut all the way. Oh well. But hey, no bulky electronics are on parade, so 99% of the time it just looks like a regular old dresser.

The knobs are from Hobby Lobby and were $1.50 each. Combined with the cost of two separate quarts of paint, this project end up costing us $35, since the dresser was free. Not bad for a TV stand, I’d say, although I am cheap and don’t like that we bought unnecessary paint. Also, who in their right mind spends a million hours of their life working on a TV stand is beyond me. I told Rick that if this color didn’t work, I was putting it back out on the curb and then it would be someone else’s problem. Good thing it worked, and fits right into our living room. The wall color is off in here (it has morphed to a blue-purple, almost like cornflower, and was supposed to be gray) and I am anxious to get stuff on the walls, but the room as a whole has definitely started looking cozier and more complete.

(Look! Our Christmas tree is standing once again!)

So: have you ever spent what seems like a million months on what should be a simple project? What’s the most marathon project you’ve ever unwittingly begun? Share, share. I love your stories. :)

***Linking this up to Primitive & Proper and Miss Mustard Seed!***