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From a Hot Mess to Marvelous- A Dixie Belle Makeover

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The Mean Man and I are always on the lookout for pieces of furniture to transform. We picked up a couple of smaller chest of drawers at an auction back in March. It’s always important that the pieces we buy have good bones; solid wood pieces, hopefully dovetailed drawers, etc. A local auction had a couple of such pieces from American of Martinsville. It ended right there; with the quality. These things were a hot mess! I took this dress from a hot mess to marvelous.

I could not imagine how I could bring these things back to life. 

First Things First 

I knew I had to get that drippy clumpy paint off of the surface before I painted. So, I took out my Porter Cable battery powered orbital sander and went to work… sanding, and sanding, and sanding. My hand was literally numb. 

Painting

I painted the piece in Dixie Belle Aubergine, which is a rich, beautiful eggplant color. Two coats had the piece covered beautifully. Adding a couple of sections of a Prima Rub on Transfer helped elevate the piece. But there was still something missing. I threw on some mismatched pulls just so I could open the drawers while I worked on it. 

I ended up changing the transfer in the upper right corner after I accidentally distressed it too much. This was crushing!! I had to sand it off of two drawers and repaint! ARGH! I almost cried. This piece ended up being quite challenging. But this is the process. Sometimes it does not go smoothly. This particular transfer is out of stock, but keep checking if you’d like to purchase!

Finishing Touches

After the transfer situation was complete I still felt the piece needed more. I added some black Best Dang Wax to the edges of the drawers for a little more depth. Then I went over all of the edges with Warm Gold Gilding Wax. This is what turned this pretty dresser into a fabulous one! I didn’t like the mid-century modern look of no overhanging top, so I had The Mean Man add one. We stained the top with Voodoo Gel Stain in Tobacco Road.

 

 

The entire piece was then topped with a couple of coats of Dixie Belle Clear Coat in a satin finish. New drawer brought the entire piece all together.

 

 

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