Mid Century Modern Dresser Redo

Hey everyone! I have an absolutely beautiful piece of furniture to share with you today and I can’t wait to show you this mid century modern dresser redo. It’s my latest Craigslist find.

Isn’t it wonderful?! The picture really doesn’t do this piece justice, it had some of the best craftsmanship on any dresser I’ve owned. The drawers had center slides (love how smooth they are), it was constructed with mostly real wood, some veneer, and it even had dovetail drawers. This dresser was expensive back in its day. What’s more, it even came with the original paperwork from Bassett and a lost bit of calendar from years past.

How cool is that!? I’m telling ya, I was geeking out over this thing. The more time I spend refinishing furniture in my life, the more I can appreciate a really well made piece. This was definitely mid century and totally my retro modern style. I STOLE it for $45 including the delivery to my house.

I struggled internally for many days debating whether or not I could bring myself to paint this beauty. Honestly, the wood and finish was in great shape. I know that painting doesn’t last forever, and once you do put paint on a piece, it is a bear to revert back to a stain in the future. This dresser’s finish has held up some 60 years…could I really change it completely?

Well, as you guessed, the answer is yes. The stain color didn’t match the espresso stains in my home, and I craved more contrast on this piece to show off the hardware and wood detailing on the drawers. I wanted it to show off its unique geometric lines with a clean color: crisp ivory.

I got to work sanding the finish down.

It was once so shiny, now so raw.

After you sand, there’s no turning back. I felt a little sad about ruining the beautiful finish at this point, but I remembered that it will look amazing when done. Besides, furniture is just furniture. It doesn’t have feelings.

Then I was on to priming. If you don’t know exactly how to paint furniture, learn to here!

Then after two coats of paint, three coats of poly, four days and finishing touches, I was done…

I told you it was amazing. The ivory looks so classy and clean. The dresser is modern and so unique!

The unique wood work on the top three drawers was something I wanted to accent and help tie in the color of the hardware on the other six drawers. I came up with this idea to add stain in the crevices of the “x” design for a little bit of contrast. I like how this gives it just a little something else; other ideas I had to set apart this feature of the dresser all seemed like they would look too dark in comparison to all the white.

Check out this complete transformation.

The only sad part of this dresser’s story is although it’s new owner (me) loves it and spent a week giving it new life, I don’t have a place for it! It measures 64″ long and most every wall in my house is not long enough.

None of them are long enough!

Right now, I’m rearranging my basement (I can’t wait to show you!) and I hope I’ll find a home for this beauty down there. Thank you for reading!!

I hope you enjoyed this makeover!