The "Lingery" Chest

The transformation of the "lingery" chest.....

No, I'm not a complete dork. But someone in this house called it a lingery chest and it just stuck. This is a painting tutorial for the "lingery chest".
1. Start with a great old Dixie lingerie chest.

2. Note the laminated plastic top....ewe! Make it go away by sanding the bajeezers out of it with the roughest sand paper you can find. I slapped a sheet of #60 on my sander and went to town.

I hit the edges of the top with a course sanding sponge. Save that sponge, more on it in a minute!
3. Apply a couple of coats of an oil based primer. I like Kilz.

4. Let it sit for a week while you teach yourself how to blog. In the mean time:



a. remove all the hardware and store out of the way

 

b. number your drawers so you wont have to play musical drawers later.

c. and then clean the rest of it. If you don't clean it, it wont matter what brand or finish of paint you use. It won't stick as well. Would you ever paint your nails with furniture polish already on them? Of course not. So clean away! Remember that sanding block from earlier? Totally optional here. But, if I'm going to use even one ounce of elbow grease, I want more bang for my buck in the scrubbing department. So I clean with "an all natural-ish" cleaner and a sanding sponge......but, hey, that's just me.....

5. Whew....that was a quick week! Now we are ready to paint! Lightly sand that primer because there are always primer splatter droplets. Forgot to take picture here but used a super fine, mostly dead, sanding sponge.
6. Pick out your paint and mix with Websters Chalk Paint Powder.
7. Now, here is where I get out my REALLY EXPENSIVE brushes and rollers.....NOT! This very frugal gal buys her brushes in the "lady tool section" of Publix Supermarket....buck ninety-nine fo' three! Do your cutting in and then roll out with a cheapy trim roller. Fill in with the roller. Look! No brush strokes or drips (no one wants a drip at a paint party!)

I am going to layer the colors and distress. So the first coat is white. Time to paint? less than 30 min. Allow to dry 30 min.

8. Pick your second paint color. Remember the blue from the Mixing Websters in Paint tutorial? I would have sanded out any lumps or bumps at this point but there weren't any. Websters! Apply second coat.

9. Made a HUGE mistake at this point! I let my daughter who is home from college see the "lingery chest". It will now NOT be sanded and distressed to show the layered colors but rather left in this beautiful solid colored state. Sigh....what's a momma gonna do?


10. Time to apply a finish. I used Fiddes & Sons' "Light". Apply with a "special wax applicator"....not. Grab a rag and rub it on. By the time you get to the end, the place you started is dry. Buff to a shine. It really is like waxing a car. Wax on, wax off! 

 11. My "client" didn't want the handles painted so they were cleaned with my "almost all natural"cleaner and put back on. 
12 TA DA! All finished!!!!