Well hello there, ugly old dresser. You have some mighty fine bones but oooh boy are you a dated mess. Time to grab the paint and transform you into something more modern!
The folks over at Young Nesters were in need of a sideboard for their dining room. After searching in vain for an affordable option, they spied this old dresser in a grandmother's basement and, since it was free anyway, decided to try their hand at an ombre makeover.
The first step in the makeover was to remove all the hardware and decorative trim. The entire piece was then sanded, cleaned and primed. Once primed and ready to go, the frame of the dresser was painted in the darkest color - Olympic's Lava Gray. To create the ombre effect, each level of drawer was painted in a different shade, starting with the darkest at the bottom and lightening up on the way to the top. To finish off the dresser, the old hardware was spray painted black and re-applied.
For all the details on this project, including paint color names, check out Young Nesters.
Images: Young Nesters
Before & After: Emily Henderson Transforms a Senior's Studio Space
Monica & Austin's Charming Bungalow
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Four-P...
How to Make Easy 3-Ingredient Energy Bars at Home
True Greek Recipe: Paximadi Bread Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Capers
AWESOME!
Ohhh..... I so wish I had somewhere to do these kinds of projects!
Nice！Love the ombre gradient!
To me this looks like a reverse before and after. The before seems to be a lot where people are taking back previously painted pieces to.
Fantastic transformation!!
Teresa
xoxo
Nice job. I would be inclined to do glass hardware on there.
Great job! It has a happy face! :)
Beautifully done...love the choice of colors!
Here's what I did with mine!! http://somethingsmellscrafty.blogspot.com/2011/07/finally.html
I was thinking RED a really bright red. For the drawer fronts paint them silver then for the
hardware pulls use either white or the bright red..
I see you have painted it already. It looks nice.
nice one!
Where did you find my old dresser? I swear I had one just like it when I was a young girl-it came from Sears and had a canopy bed to match Love the makeover!
I like that they kept some of the decorative details like the legs and the molding on the bottom. The before was definitely dated and I think the after is a nice modern approach while maintaining some of the original's shape.
The only little thing I would have kept was the decorative trim on the top drawers. I think they would have worked if painted the same color as the drawer. But I like decorative little touches like that so it's just me. Overall, it's great. Thanks for sharing!
All I see are two happy faces! Is that a bad thing?
I have to disagree with some people - I think the before is 100% ugly. And while the after is still perhaps just a bit dated, I certainly think it's sooooo much better than before. Have to admit though, I just am really not fond of gold, and blue's my favorite color.
I love it! I looked at the style of the before, with the words "ombre" and thought, "uh oh" but holy cow this is beautiful. I don't even like ombre but I would put this in my home in a second.
Love this take on Ombre. Very muted and elegant. I would probably go for matching glass handles but that's just me. Nicely done. (and so much better than the before, yowch)
They clearly give credit to Young House Love for the idea. I don't think that makes them a "wannabe" at all.
I thought the "before" had charm, but in looking at their home, the "after" really works well in their space, given their wall colors and the fact they use this in their dining room. I think this is a great example of repurposing something old/unused in way that a) meets your needs, b) does so on a budget, and c) is something the rest of us could try ourselves, without expensive equipment or highly refined skills. Great job!!
Wow! Great job!
I like it, but would have chosen a color that contrasted more with the walls.
But overall, very nice - and free. Woot! That is the best part ~
I used that very same dresser when I was a kid. Awww...I miss it. I had the whole set, bed, nightstands and desk. Not digging the after but that is probably because I'm stuck in nostalgia mode right now.
Um... I meant "used to have" that very same dresser. ;)
I don't understand why you would buy four different shades of grey? IMO it would work better to buy a dark base grey, and then create a true ombre effect by adding white paint. It doesn't look very cohesive as it is. I'd also change out the hardware... even just painting it a more complementary colour.
I too now see two smiling faces (with double chins!) - thanks to @mamamamaqc!!
And the YHL-ness of their site is odd... There's a definite wannabe vibe going on, especially with the baby.
I don't understand the dislikes on this dresser. It's a mass-produced piece of furniture that 75% of girls had in the 70's and 80's.
I like the paint choices. It looks really cool.
i know what is bugging me about the paint, it's sort of muddy looking because the colors are too similar. there's isn't enough spectral (?) distance between the lightest and darkest colors.
I like it. :)
Sorry but this is just plain tacky. The paint colour and finish are all wrong and so are the handles. I would like to have seen the glitz and glam of the style amped up in the reno. You can't try and hide the original style. A gloss black or electric blue, keeping the gold detailing would have been much more effective and in keeping with the style. More kitsch glam and less dudd dresser. Disappointing.
Beautiful!
Wow! i really love this. don't listen to people that say you ruined it. the before was tacky.
@babayaga, you made my day :)
Looks great to me! I would love to experiment with ombre on something in my house.
Nice one, though the middle two drawers are a little too similar to be worth buying a separate can of paint for. I'm surprised that they were so thrifty on this entire project, yet wasted money by buying five cans of paint. It's not that hard to buy the darkest color you want and the lightest color, and mix them.
I think the detailing in the before is so much more unique and beautiful than ombre, but that's just me. However, the hardware is ruining the end result. After all the work you put into that thing, you really can't spring for new hardware that actually looks nice?
Brilliant!
About the Before—on their site, it says that the decorative detail was plastic.
I don't hate this, but am a bit underwhelmed. Somehow the color reminds me to file cabinet...
I don't see my previous comment, but I don't like this - I think the hardware needs to be swapped out. Keeping the knobs on the top makes it look weird and the hardware overall looks dated. They should put on new modern hardware and then swap out the knobs for drawer pulls on the top.
It's annoying to see references to previous comments that have been DELETED. C'mon, AT. Unless they were *really* bad (in which case I doubt they would have 'made someone's day', as a subsequent poster said), why the deletion craze??
As for this makeover: I dunno. The hardware is just so wrong that it's hard to appreciate the lovely job they've done on the ombre. Without the moulding detail that the original had, having different knobs on the top two drawers makes no visual sense.
haha... i have that dresser set too! i've seen it in a bunch of ppl's houses it must've been super popular in the 80s!
I'm glad you hid the original style. I had this furniture in the 70s and it's hideous. Looks nice now.
I love it.
You see tons of this kind of 60-70's version of French Provincial furniture, and while sort of tacky, its often made pretty well, seems to survive for decades. They are ripe for makeovers. Love to see more of them!
My sister had that same dresser when we were growing up.