Tuesday, May 27, 2014

This Entertainment Center's Got History: A story in Furniture Refinishing

In a recent post about updating the living room, you saw a glimpse of our little ol' entertainment center. This "entertainment center" has had a long history.

When my husband Justin and I were just married, we lived in a little "two bedroom" apartment. The second bedroom was just big enough for a crib, no more, no less, and we had about zero room for storage in the apartment. It was a cute little old house that had been segmented into three apartments. The washer and dryer were located in the middle of our bedroom and we had one tiny closet for the entrie apartment. Our [then dresser] was given to us by Justin's stepmother under the condition that we would treat it with love as it had been her mothers. We kept it in the hallway/entryway since it was the only place it would fit at the time. It eventually held both baby Oaken's and my clothes.

This picture was taken in that hallway in the mirror that hung above it then. A selfie, before selfie's were even cool!


Oaken was such a cutie patootie! 

Unfortunately, I don't really have a good before picture of the dresser. However, I did snap a shot of one of the drawers so that you could see the finish prior to sanding.


This old dresser does have a plasticy laminate top, which I had concerns about painting over initially. However, we did a lot of research and read that lightly sanding the laminate would allow paint to adhere successfully.

So we lightly sanded the entire dresser....


And just for good measure, we applied Klean-Strip deglosser to the entire piece following the directions on the bottle.



After giving it ample time to dry, we painted the dresser with regular semi-gloss interior paint.

When we were done, the once dresser had new life as an entertainment center in our Annapolis home. This picture was taken about 3 years ago.


It took a slight beating in our latest move, so we're considering giving the entertainment center another mini makeover in the near future, but it has otherwise help up wall and still has a place of honor in our new home.


Once again, it's amazing what a little paint and elbow grease can do.


Is there a certain piece of furniture in your home that has undergone a makeover? What kind of history does it have?

**This post contains an affiliate link, but we do absolutely swear by Klean-Strip Deglosser and have used in on many a project!

6 comments:

  1. What a great transformation! Thanks for linking with Tuesday Tutorials #pintorials

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    1. Thank you for hosting such a great link party, Kate!

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  2. The dresser looks great as a media center! Furniture transformations are always my favorite. I have a dresser from my husband's grandmother that we have painted about 3 times, turned into a media cabinet, and now use as a dresser again. I also have his other grandmother's media cabinet that we have painted numerous times.

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    1. Thank you, Nikki! I love painting and revitalizing furniture that's been in the family for a while, it's so rewarding.

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  3. What kind of material did you use for the tv box and dvd player etc to sit on?

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    1. This dresser had a backer-board type material already in it to separate the upper and lower drawers. I think any type of stiff backer-board, a thin piece of plywood or thin mdf would work well.

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