Tag: Dresser

Easy Cricut Hexagon Stencil Dresser Refinish

While we discussed the move to our new house, my youngest daughter had a specific image in mind for her new room. She absolutely had to have a hexagon stenciled wall. Thanks so our new homes previous owners, I had four dressers ripe for refinishing, so it was a great opportunity to use another hexagon stencil to spice up a dresser. I did a brief search for a hexagon stencil but didn’t find what I needed. That only meant it was a great opportunity to use my new Cricut to create the stencil for both the wall and dresser.

Prep Work

I love a project that doesn’t involve much prep work. As I’ve stated in other posts, sanding isn’t my favorite thing to do by hand. With my feathered bench refinishing project, I used a deglosser for the first time and found a new love. That same sander deglosser was what I used to take off the remaining shine of this old dresser.  Using a clean rag, the deglosser was rubbed on all the surfaces of the dresser. 

Paint Choice

Paint choice is important and the choices are endless. The fun thing about being in a new town is finding new stomping grounds. My girls and I checked out a nearby antique shop and certified stockist of Annie Sloane paint, called The Farmhouse. The thing about specialty paints, like Fusion Paint and Annie Sloane, is that it can be difficult to find exactly what you want without having to cart yourself clear around your state. I lucked out here with this shop being just 10 minutes away. The pure white paint was calling me, so that’s what I went with for the hexagon stencil dresser. The only other project I’d used Annie Sloan paint with was my Antique Chabby Chic Hutch redo. Many refinishers love Annie Sloan, so I kind of felt obligated to give it a more full-scale try. 

The hexagon color pallet was a given, I used the same colors as the walls in my daughter’s room. 

The handles stumped me a bit on color choice. I didn’t want to run to yet another store to buy different spray paint, so I choose out of my existing stock of colors. The teal was the closest I had to the hexagon stencil colors but it didn’t feel quite right. In the end, the teal is as they remain, although I ended up buying some clearance sea glass at Michaels that may just end up covering the teal at some point. Only motivation and other finished projects will tell!

Paint Application

You hear a lot about the importance of the paintbrush choice when refinishing furniture or really any other painting project. This rounded paintbrush is an Annie Sloan brush. The website description says “Annie Sloan’s bristle Chalk Paint® Brushes are perfect for producing a textured, vintage finish. The bristles are strong, yet pliable, and are made of predominately pure bristles with natural split ends, allowing you to paint expressively. They hold a large amount of paint and can also be used for applying wax.”

I agree it holds a good bit of amount and definitely gives it a textured finish. Pictures below will show proof of it. Since the dresser started out with a dark cherry finish, the first coat of the Pure White Paint didn’t appear to cover much. I ended up doing three coats to get full coverage. It didn’t really feel like much work at all. I would throw a coat on, go complete some other tasks, then return for another round.

Hexagon Stencil

Unfortunately, I realized after the fact I was millimeters off on my wall hexagon stencil so was determined to get this smaller 3-inch hexagon stencil right. I used 12 x 12 Acetate stencil material I bought on Amazon to create the stencil with my Cricut. Here is the stencil pattern if you’re interested. After the tedious work of getting it just right, I went about painting the hexagons. 

The stenciling component was smaller in scale but felt like it took longer than painting the coats over the enter thing. I did one 12 x12 section at a time. Waiting was the name of the game, because I had to wait for it to dry enough to lay the stencil on the next section without creating a mess. After about 15 sections or so, the top was finished! My hexagon loving 7 year old was over the moon. 

The Finishings

The call in me to rough it up a bit had to be reined in to fit the modern look of the hexagon dresser, but I decided to go for a small amount around the drawer edges. This is simply accomplished with sandpaper and muscle. With a less than careful new user, I figured there was bound to be some scratching of the finish in its future. It seemed worth it to give it some of that charm ahead of time. 

As I noted above with the rounded paint brush, there was a definite texture to the finish. This can be seen in the first image below. My daughter was less than keen on the roughness, so I opted to sand down the ridges to a smoother finish. After the sanding, the finish was so wonderfully soft and smooth. The middle and right pictures show the difference. 

And with that, this Hexagon Stencil Dresser Refinish was a wrap. At the time, I didn’t have the right wax on hand. I moved it to the room to get it out of the overwhelmingly messy basement. My little gal loves her room and dresser with all the finishing touches just as she dictated. She’s the same daughter who wanted the Imagination Galaxy closet, which I completed the day before we moved furniture in to our new digs. This is also why she wants no part of giving up her room for the new baby sister due in December. This new room is definitely her safe space to feel completely in her element.

Safe Spaces for your Mental Health

Some of us don’t always have a safe space where we can create things just as we’d like. Sometimes, anxiety or feelings of extreme stress can strike when we don’t expect it in public, at the office, or at home. Not only is it important to create physically comfortable and safe spaces for when the need strikes, it can also help to create safe mental spaces. Using some soothing safe space imagery,

You can train and tone up your imagination like a muscle, so it works for you and not against you, helping you manage or soothe emotions at times of stress or difficulty. This builds inner-confidence and resilience, benefiting your overall wellbeing.

Sarah Rees, CBT therapist

On her website, Sarah Rees offers instructions on 7 steps to Safe Place Imagery Practice. If you’re feeling bogged down by mental madness, why not try to mentally create a place of calm in any situation. I know I benefit from focusing on something specific for a short time to unwind from the stress knots. For me, it tends to be running through how I’m going to accomplish a project that has been pending or is stuck on how it can be completed. I hope you find your mental and physical places of comfortable and calm today!

*This page contains affiliate links. This means if you use one of my links to make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Cathartic Crafting!

An Inspiring Way to Refinish an Antique Dresser

If you’re anything like me, you peruse the Facebook marketplace every now and again for some “window shopping”. I was on just such a trip when I spotted an antique dresser being unloaded by the previous would-be refinisher. It was a steal! I jumped on that as quick as I could type “interested!”. From there, it was just a matter of my mind diving into identifying just the right direction. Follow along with me on my antique dresser refinish. I really hope it inspires you on your own journey!

Structure Fixes

The top was in the roughest shape. Since much of it was peeling off, there wasn’t much I could do to salvage it. I scraped off the chipping wood and sanded down the top. I considered adding a 1/4″ thick board to the top to replicate the upper layer but made the wise decision to leave it as it was. 

The rest of the dresser was in really good shape. The existing finish was a matte finish so all that was necessary was to clean it. Paint would adhere very well without needing to sand it. In my world, that is the best kind of piece!

The top middle drawer was stuck in there without having a handle to pull it out. I was able to get it out by wedging a tool into the hole and the edges to shimmy it out. 

Breaking out the Paintbrush

I went the budget friendly route on this paint choice and used my favorite 40% off coupons at Michaels to get three colors: Light gray, dark gray, and white. Typically, I try to avoid having to use blue tape (I just don’t like spending the time doing it), but it was definitely necessary for this paint job to create straight lines. I chose to use white as the dominant color and light and dark gray as the border and stencil color.  

Stencils!

My stencil phase was really kicking into gear at the point of this project, so it was a given I was going to do something utilizing the technique. (Check out my other stencil projects: Stenciled Coffee Table and feathered bench.) I again used a Michael’s coupon to get a damask stencil. From there, it was just a matter of letting my imagination go free to determine what I wanted it to look like. When doing the stencil, I did a combination of the light and dark grays to create more dimension. It, of course, would have been fine to do all one shade, but I didn’t want to overwhelm with the dark paint or for it to be harder to see with the light gray. I coated the entire dresser in clear wax to finish it off. The final results are below!

Drawer Liner

Given that the inside of the drawers would be covered with clothes, you may not find it important to use a liner. I liked the fun of the pop of pattern, so I opted to spend a few more bucks to get the drawer liner. I found this liner at Walmart. It has the handle grid on the back for cutting. All it took was to measure the inside of the drawer space, cut the paper to size with the grid, peel, and stick. It can be a bit hard to get completed smooth, but if you continue to rub the bumps, it gets the job done.

Finishing Touch

The dresser just needed some knobs to call it complete. I searched around for a good bit. Home Goods and Hobby Lobby sell knobs in the stores but the selection wasn’t great to match what I was searching to get. I found these knobs on Amazon:

I loved the look of them and the coloring was perfect. After having used several other knob types, I can verify for you that while these knobs may come loose with use, the screw will not pull out of the knob. The screw can be seen at the front of the knob and goes all the through as opposed to being glued into the knob. It’s much more secure that way. 

Putting the Antique Dresser into Place

The plain jane white dresser was swapped out for the refinished antique dresser.

The canopy bed was one my parents made for me as a child. I made the curtains to appease my little one.

I hope you enjoyed the quick and easy journey. Refinishing doesn’t have to be scary. If you can find one like this that doesn’t need a lot of structure fixing, then you are basically only left to the confines of your creativity. While we are on the topic, check out the benefits of creativity:

Turns out, tapping in to that creative energy can actually improve your overall health. It might sound too good to be true, but simply engaging in creative behaviors (even just coloring in those trendy adult coloring books) improves brain function, mental health, and physical health.

Forbes
5 benefits of Being Creative:
  1. Increases happiness
  2. Reduces dementia
  3. Improves mental health
  4. Boosts your immune system
  5. Makes you smarter

With this benefits, there’s no reason not to let unlock that creativity today! Happy Crafting!

*This page contains affiliate links. This means if you use one of my links to make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Cathartic Crafting!

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