Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® Dresser Makeovers

I have this dresser and nightstand we purchased years ago when I first started college and needed some makeshift furniture. At the time, I had my Dad stain the drawers a cherry color and they went on that way for years. When we moved into our new house about 4 years ago, we decided to try to paint this same dresser/nightstand pair with white latex paint. We sanded, painted, and sanded some more and somehow the dressers started to discolor, the wood grain started showing through the white paint, and the paint stuck and made the drawers hard to open at times. We only painted one and decided to hold off on the other. Today I’m showing why I’d now use Annie Sloan® Chalk Paint any day over latex paint to refinish my furniture. Check out my easy Annie Sloan® Chalk Paint Dresser Makeover.

I didn’t take a before photo of the dresser, but I have a shot of what it looked like when we first moved into our house and finished the guest room (now our son’s bedroom):

We started by removing all the knobs on the dresser and painting each drawer with the Annie Sloan® Emperor’s Silk red they have in their shop. It’s a true bright red, which is exactly what I wanted to make the room POP with some color.

I painted the nighstand and finished it up and my wonderful hubby helped me with the dresser. It’s hard for a pregnant girl to be sitting and painting on the floor for too long…I feel like I’m squishing the babe!

The thing that’s nice about chalk paint is there’s no sanding or prep work needed. Make sure your surface is clean and just PAINT! We typically use a brush to apply our paint, but a roller can be used to put it on too. We prefer that if we’re rolling it that we put the second coat on with a brush to make sure it’s all even.

The paint will start out looking very wet, but it dries into a nice matte finish…where you can tell it’s chalk paint. I’ll also add that chalk paint® seems to dry a bit faster, so try not to go over the same spot over and over again to avoid it caking up or building up in places you don’t want it to.

I’d suggest applying at least two coats of paint to your furniture, if not three. The paint lasts a LONG time, so you may find that the price is a bit expensive for a small pot, but that it lasts for several coats and for several projects. For three coats of paint on two pieces of furniture we used a little over a half pot of their paint.

You’ll also find with chalk paint that brush strokes can be seen more readily than with a typical latex paint, which you can even out with more coats or if you’re looking for that distressed look the brush strokes will fit your taste perfectly. Once your paint has dried for at least a day, use the Annie Sloan wax to wax your furniture. I use an old rag and wax my furniture in small circles carefully working the wax in well.

I prefer to add two coats of wax to all my pieces. If your furniture needs touched up later on, you can simply paint over the wax and re-wax it again. The paint and wax hold up very well. We painted our Kitchen Table using Annie Sloan® chalk paint last year and we really like how it looks. I’m about ready to paint the top to touch up some imperfections, but it should take much work to do so.

Overall, I love how the dresser and nightstand turned out. The room is a light gray, so the red furniture really adds a pop of color and is a unique aspect to his bedroom that many kids don’t have.

I really tried not to go “themey” with his bedroom, but plan to add some aspects of his current interests soon that I’ll share with you. The red, white, blue, and grey color scheme go with a lot and I think it’s something we can transition in and out of as he gets older with little effort. In the meantime, we’re still finishing up a few bigger projects to complete the room all the way, but it’s looking really great!

Tomorrow I’ll share with you how to do an easy DIY liner for your dresser and nightstand! Stay tuned!

Annie Sloan® Chalk Paint

Do Your Best Sign from Evie Ivy Crafts

Nightstand Lamp from Pottery Barn Kids

Personalized Baseball Bat from Pick Your Plum

Baseball Piggy Bank from Target

I was provided with free chalk paint for this project, but all opinions and ideas are my own and I LOVE using this product!