To Paint or Not to Paint? That is the question!

Today's lesson:

Painting projects are ALWAYS bigger than you anticipate, but can often times be worth the time and trouble!

The other night we took a family walk after dinner.  We were less than one block from home when I noticed a small dresser on the sidewalk with a "free" sign on it.  Sometimes I see things like this and I'm tempted to pick them up just because they are free, but with this one it was different.  I wanted to pick it up because not only was it free but it looked like something that the Nester would change into something brilliant.  I wanted to see if I was up to the challenge as well!

Unfortunately I didn't get a very good "before" picture.  The entire thing was painted a very pale mint green.  It was cute.  I thought about just distressing it a bit and calling it good, but then I pictured it a robin's egg blue and knew that I had to somehow find a way to get it into my kitchen! I loved the handles, the simplicity and the old fashioned feel of the piece.  The drawers are not deep, but for the size of the dresser I knew it would be able to hold a lot...

The project in and of itself was not as complicated as I would have though.  Unfortunately the fact that I had two little artists who also wanted to paint which lead to me stopping every 15 minutes to tend to their needs extended the project time line for me! However they had so much fun painting together that I'm glad I said yes rather than jumping to my typical "no" answer.

All things considered it didn't take me a long time which as partcially due to the beautiful California sun drying my paint within minutes after applying it!  And for the first time every I finally picked out the perfect paint color on the first try!

I initially began sanding it and decided it was too much work, so instead I sprayed a primer that I already had on hand over the entire thing.  Then I spray painted the handles "Antique White".  I was able to purchase a sample can of the color I needed from Lowe's for only $2.95! (It's supposed to cover a 4'x4' area, so I figured it could do this little dresser). So for less than three dollars, I took a fairly drab piece and turned it into this ----->

Hmmm, next project? The dining room hutch?