Royal Blue Dresser Makeover

Do you love the Blue Camp collection furniture from Pottery Barn Kids? The Camp collection of bedroom furniture comes in a few different finishes – blue, red, white, and natural – but it’s their blue that’s my favorite. My boys have had three pieces from the Camp collection for the past 15 years. Not only has it held up extremely well, we’ve never tired of the color. So when it came time to refinish my old dresser, I decided a similar royal blue was perfect for this dresser makeover.

This long dresser was actually given to me by my parents for Christmas when I was about 10 years old. I remember they bought my sister and I an entire bedroom set that year – dresser, desk, nightstands, and headboards. This dresser travelled with me when I got married and moved into our first home. Then again when my husband and I built our current home nearly 16 years ago. This wood dresser is about 40 years old and is still in remarkable condition.

As a matter of fact, all of the pieces in the set are still in remarkable condition. The beds and desk were given to very good friends of mine who use them in their guest rooms. And we still use one of the nightstands in our bedroom. Yes, this was an excellent quality bedroom set.

Although, it was a little outdated for my taste. So when I refinished a new dresser for our master bedroom a few months ago (which you will see soon), this one was moved out and placed in line for a makeover.

This first thing I did was fill in a few of the scrollwork designs on the top drawers and side edges. I wanted to start with cleaner, straight lines. The dresser was then sanded down with my DeWalt rotary sander. You can find this same sander on Amazon HERE. It’s only about $70 and well worth it.

Lately I’ve been trying to stain wood dressers rather than paint them if at all possible in order to preserve the wood and have the refinished pieces last another 30 years. But this was one case where re-staining was not practical.

As you can see, while most of the dresser was solid wood, the top and the sides of the dresser were made of a thin piece of laminate and not able to be sanded down. Also the scrollwork on the drawers and front columns were filled in with wood filler and would not have been fully disguised with stain. So paint was the best option in this case.

The dresser was a medium brown stain to begin with. Initially, I thought a lighter color would make for the most dramatic before & after makeover. The white turned out nice, but I knew I could do better.

The dresser itself, while now more modern without the scrollwork, still has a weighted look to it. As a result, my gut was telling me it needed a more masculine color to support its weight.

By now, you all know I love blue furniture. I’ve painted dressers with light Woodlawn blue and dark Polo, Abyss, Evening Dove, and Hale Navy. This time, I wanted to match my sons’ royal blue Camp collection furniture from Pottery Barn Kids.

I took a drawer to the our local Benjamin Moore paint supplier and they color-matched the Pottery Barn blue. Benjamin Moore’s Deep Royal Blue was a perfect match. This pint of paint I purchased will actually do double-duty when I repaint my son’s headboard.

The first coat of blue I added was actually Evening Dove, a medium blue. Once dry, I placed a small amount of the Royal Blue in a plastic container and watered it down by about 50%. Using a clean cotton tshirt, I dipped the rag in the Royal blue paint and wiped it on over the Evening Dove. The result was the dark blue of the Royal but not a flat dark blue finish.

See how you can see very subtle variations in the color. It’s a modern look that still has depth.

Before adding any of the blue paint, I filled in all of the old holes with wood filler. I decided that I wanted to leave the option to add any style and length metal drawer pull. I didn’t want to be limited by the old hole spread. Filling in the holes with wood filler should be done before you paint.

As you can see, either a satin brass or a satin nickel metal drawer pull will work well with this Royal Blue. Even black pulls will look great. I decided to leave the decision up to the buyer of this dresser.

Here are a few from Amazon I really like…

Here’s a side view of the dresser which shows the color variations from the two different paint colors.

From the front, if you look closely, you can still see wood grain on the drawer fronts.

This nine drawer dresser will be listed in Entri Ways’ online shop for sale. I hope a new family enjoys it for the next 30 or 40 years, as much as we have for the past 40.

It breaks my heart a little to be selling this dresser that’s been in my family for so long, but we really don’t have a use for it anymore. Maybe a family member will see it and decide to buy it. If not, I know it’s still time for it to be sold and I’m ok with that.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to products I use myself.