Moving from a 2 bedroom townhouse (where the second bedroom was used as an office/junk room) to a 3 bedroom house, we knew we would have to buy some furniture...specifically bedroom furniture. So being the thrifty, vintage lover that I am (wink), I began to search Craigslist for dressers and nightstands. I sort of planned on finding something that would probably need some TLC, like a fresh coat of paint or new hardware. I was hoping for something sort of unique.
After a few weeks of searching, a new listing popped up with just what I was looking for (don't you love when that happens?)! a set of 4 vintage pieces that definitely seemed unique. They have a 'faux' bamboo look and are super sturdy.
The only problem was their color. They were an ivory/yellowish color that just wouldn't do. I was excited to try my hand at painting them. But also a little nervous because they are a fairly sought after vintage name that I was worried I might totally ruin. BUT by a lot of vintage lovers standards, changing the color, no matter how amazing the paint job is, is a crime worthy of death. I had actually told the person I bought them from that I was thinking about painting them and he looked at me like I was crazy. OH WELL! I painted them :)
I thought a high gloss black would look great and stand the test of time. I had never used a high gloss paint before but had read it is a lot trickier to use than a normal paint. So I did some reading and some research. I went with high gloss paint and primer from Sherwin Williams.
From my online research it mostly seemed everyone just mentioned that it took more coats and you had to be careful of your brush strokes because high gloss paint shows off more imperfections. I mostly found this all to be true.
Painting 3 of the 4 pieces took WAAAYY longer than I had ever anticipated. With the sanding, primer, paint, and 4 hour dry time in between coats, this project definitely ended up taking up several weekends. The picture below shows what only one coat of paint looks like. It's obvious it doesn't cover nicely in one coat.
This vanity will most likely live in our guest room and be used as a desk or possibly a nightstand.
The dressers BEFORE. We are using them in our room.
The dressers AFTER. Kitty approved.
We are pretty happy with how they turned out. The black looks WAY better in our light pink room then the yellowish/ivory did. When they were still the original color I believe one family member said our bedroom looked like an 80s Miami hotel room. LOL. And we CAN'T have that! :)
I still think the drawers on the dressers might need another coat of paint but we'll see. I'm not in a hurry to work with high gloss paint again any time soon!
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