Happy Memorial Day everyone! Hope you all have the kind of weekend plans that relax you and make you feel good. For so many, that means getting away to the beach or the lake. For our family, it means accomplishing projects!
It seems like our town becomes a ghost town every year on this weekend. Once, and only once, I planned a yard sale on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. I know better now.
For our family, a 3-day weekend means projects (and cookouts of course), but mostly projects. Since yesterday, my husband and I have been discussing what major projects we can accomplish this weekend.
- Pull out and relocate some plants
- Remove the boards and stone from our lower deck so they can be re-built (a major project1!)
- Paint & Stain the upper deck
- Vacuum the entire house (The pollen is in full-force here in Massachusetts and it gets on everything!)
- Clean out the attic & do the change-over of winter to summer clothes for myself & the kids
In our family, that’s how we relax. The feeling of accomplishment is a great feeling so by Monday morning we’re hoping to have at least a few of these projects checked off the list.
Knowing how our weekend would be, it was important that I finish up some major painting projects and get the garage back in order. Last week, I showed you the Lavender Dresser I completed. Yesterday, it was the Blue-Gray Hutch. Today, it’s the two Rock Maple Dressers.
I came by these dressers through my amazing network; my cousin actually. A relative of his was renovating an old home that had several pieces of furniture left behind. I’m so happy and appreciative that he thought to call me to take them away. These dressers are amazing!
Solid wood, rock maple made in New Hampshire.
Very large, beautifully-constructed, dove-tailed drawers that all slide very smoothly.
The inside of these drawers are in perfect condition – a testament to the original owners showing that they purchased very high quality pieces of furniture and took great care of them over the years.
These dressers are the poster child for the phrase… “They just don’t make ’em like this anymore!”
Once I sanded these down, the wood was in perfect condition. They sat in my workshop for a few weeks while I contemplated staining or painting them.
They would have stained perfectly, but since not every bit of stain was removed with the sander, I would have had to go with a darker stain to ensure an even coverage. The roadblock I kept running into was that the legs on these dressers were French style – very feminine.
Since I already had a similar dark-stained dresser in stock that I need to sell, I needed to do something different on these.
White dressers have always sold very quickly for me. They are classic and neutral.
I just wish they were easy. Believe it or not, white is actually one of the most difficult colors to paint over a previously-stained wood because of bleed-through of the stain. You cannot just use a regular stain-blocking primer. Trust me – I’ve done it. No matter how many coats of that primer you apply, you’ll still get what looks like yellow stains coming through the white paint – or even a very light color paint.
Zinsser BIN primer is the only way to go. Zinsser BIN primer is a very thin, liquidy (Is that a word?) shellac-based primer. The shellac is the stain blocker.
(Disclaimer: This post does contain affiliate links to products I use myself.)
The BIN primer dries very quickly. After just 45 minutes you can apply the second coat.
Spend the time to properly prepare your furniture prior to painting it white. In the end, it will save you time and you’ll have a much better finished product.
All of the photos I’ve featured here are showing the dressers with two coats of the Zinsser BIN primer and three coats of Benjamin Moore Advance satin in bright white.
These white french dressers are for sale in my Shop.
I’ll even throw in that small, 3-drawer side table if it’s still available at the time of purchase.
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Thank you & Enjoy!
Vicki
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