I got this dresser from a garage sale for cheap. The drawers were in good condition but the finish was cheap and the top was actually a thin piece of wood “paper” that was peeling off.

Luckily, the paper just sanded right off.  I primed it with two coats, because I needed a “filler” to smooth out the lovely MDF that was serving as the top of this dresser.  I don’t use Primer too often with Chalk Paint, but sometimes, it has it’s place.

I knew with a lovely coat of Duck Egg Blue Chalk paint and one of my own mixed glazes, a little Dark Oak Wax and some light distressing, I could completely change the look of this piece. 

  Here is how we looked before:

Not bad, but no personality, and looking very much like it’s 1,000,000 cousins that were produced at le cheapo furniture factory.  

In comes the Paint transformation.  

This is one of my favorite tricks with paint.  You can take a very standard, not lovely piece of furniture, and dress it up to look expensive.  Everyone would love to be able to own truly well made, hard wood furniture, but not everyone can afford it.  This is where painting a piece can keep the MDF furniture as “Green” as possible.  Transforming it into something it never thought it could be, giving it a new life, and keeping it out of a landfill.

It doesn’t hurt to give it some lovely new jewelery:

Hopefully this little piece will go on to live a long and lovely life at a new owner’s home.