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| Repurposed 1970's era dresser. |
The bedside tables are cheap things that were given to my husband. The dresser was a hand-me-down from the 70's (very dated looking!).
Now, I knew NOTHING about whitewashing. I'm here to reassure you, it is very easy.
You'll Need:
- White, latex based paint.
- Water
- A container to mix the paint in (No lie, I used an old plastic canister that I had thrown into my yard sale pile).
- Something to mix the paint with.
- Paintbrush.
- An old rag (hello t-shirts and towels that need an excuse to be chucked).
- Sandpaper.
- Something to put on the floor if you are doing this project indoors (I did mine in the kitchen and living room on top of an old blanket.)
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| Before sanding. |
- Mix 2 parts paint to 1 part water
- Stir the paint and water mix.
- Remove all hardware.
- Lightly sand the surfaces that will be painted (just a basic quick sanding to rough up the texture, nothing professional or that takes a long time. It took me less than a minute per piece I was painting).
- Wipe down each surface after sanding to remove the dust.
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| After sanding |
The trick is to whitewash it one small part at a time. For example, do one side, and once it's completed, then do the other. When that's finish, do the top, and so on and so forth.
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| Paint. It's drippy and messy. |
Repeat the process until you have acheived the desired look you want.
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| Wipe down with cloth to smooth the "look" and remove the paint drips. |
I occasionally dipped my paintbrush into the bottom of my paint mixture (less thinned by the water), and painted stripes (also wiping it with the cloth after a moment), to create some brighter lines.
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| I painted some thicker stripes to create brighter lines in certain spots after it was wiped down. |
While I was at it, I took the hardware I removed outside and painted it with some hammered metal spray paint to update the look.
Excited, I then spray painted some light switch covers (the ones for the kitchen and hallway). I was quite pleased with the result.
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| I used Krylon spray paint in Hammered Metal finish to update the look of the drawer hardware. |
I will post pictures of the completed bedside tables soon, but here is the dresser.
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| Completed dresser. Ignore my mess, I had yard sale piles in all the rooms that day. |
