Do you have statement piece in your home? That colorful piece that draws your eye to it as soon as you enter a room? That piece of furniture that may be surrounded by neutral-colored walls and monochrome furnishings, but that demands attention because of its bold finish? That was exactly my intention when I designed these Hunter Green Dressers.
Color doesn’t always have to be bright and blinding to be a stand-out. It can be bold and strong with a touch of masculine, even on a more feminine style dresser. It can be interesting, in a way that you have to walk up close to see the actual layers of colors that brought it to life. Yes, that was my intention when designing this set of antique dressers.
These two vintage dressers were given to me by a friend of mine, Sandra. Sandra and her husband were moving to Florida. They were emptying their house and couldn’t take these two solid wood dressers with them.
My first thought upon seeing them was “green”. I’m not sure why, I just had this gut feeling that they should be green.
I actually fought that gut feeling for a while. I decided I should add stain rather than paint to preserve these vintage pieces. I should try staining them with modern layers of gray and white stains.
But all those “I shoulds” didn’t mean I could.
When I sanded back to the bare wood, I discovered that the dresser was made of a few different woods. The top of the dresser and drawer fronts differed from the decorative wood on the drawer fronts which differed from the panels on the sides of the dressers.
What does that all mean? A light stain would not have covered evenly. I would have had to go with a dark stain.
So I opted for my original gut feeling and painted them green.
The green is Hunter Green by Benjamin Moore. I decided to try Benjamin Moore’s Regal Select Paint in a Pearl finish which covered and adhered really well.
Once the 3 thin layers of paint were dry, I applied a clear matte Polycrylic to protect the paint finish and prep the dressers to glaze them. You can find the polycrylic on Amazone HERE.
I then custom-mixed a black-brown glaze and wiped on a very light coat of the glaze with a cotton rag. I applied very little and removed most of it in the same motion as applying it.
The result… depth and dimension.
The hardware is original and shines nicely against the green.
The dressers stand on the original wood casters.
The dove-tailed drawers are really large and deep. I gave them a nice sanding inside and out.
With older solid wood dressers like this, I also flip the drawer boxes over and sand off a layer along the edges. Drawers like this swell. By sanding them down, they slide much easier and the paint is now less likely to rub and scrape off.
What a pair! These Hunter Green dressers are now ready for their new home.
These Hunter Green & Black Glaze Dressers are now available in Entri Ways’ online SHOP.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links for products I use myself.
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