It is obvious that Karen must a dedicated DIYer with an artist's eye if she could find the beauty in this dilapidated dresser. Her father-in-law rescued this dresser from the dumpster knowing that Karen would be able bring this piece back to life.
After waiting for inspiration to strike, Karen got to work scraping and stripping and sanding to remove the layers of peeling paint. She then painted the dresser in a slate grey and created a pattern to help celebrate her 19th wedding anniversary. Karen used chalk to sketch two lilies (her wedding flower), then used a permanent paint pen to draw the final outline. Rather than fill in the outline with paint, she chose instead to sand inside, allowing the natural wood tones to shine through as the body of the flower. The end result is a far cry from the dumpster find!
See more: Art is Beauty: Dumpster Dive to Dumpster Diva
(Images: Karen Chudy/Art is Beauty)
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Thank you so much for featuring my dresser! You just made my morning!
Hugs,
Karin
www.artisbeauty.net
Probably the best dresser transformation I have ever seen. Fantastic job.
AT throws down the gauntlet at the "don't paint the furniture" and "I liked the before better" crowd!
Beautiful result -- and I have to say if someone said they were going to revamp that dresser by drawing a big flower on the front I would have been pretty skeptical.
From hope less to hope chest
(technically wrong but it sounds as nice as the transformation you accomplished)
Slow clap. You seriously deserve it.
you've taken this crappy little dresser from an ugly duckling into a magnificent swan!
Amazing job "coloring" the flowers by sanding the dresser and showing the natural wood.
Looks good, I might go over the flower with a bit of diluted black so the flower itself is a bit more subtle.
Just beautiful! And I love that you made it so special featuring your wedding flowers.
Wow. Just wow. From firewood to something wonderful.
WOW! I'm just flooored. So beautiful and so inpiring! Think I'm going to try to find a beat up old dresser and see what I can do with it. Thanks!
I'm marveling at the fact that the FIL pulled it from the dumpster for her. Must be a sweet fellow.
This is an impressive job! The finished look makes me think of batik fabric.
Sweet!
One less piece of garbage in a landfill, one more piece of pretty in the world. Yay!
Serious Wow! Love the wood toned inside the flowers.
Not my taste, but well done. Evidently the drawers and insides were still usable and workable. Impressive for something that really did look beyond help.
Inspiring!
Love it! You have me beat--I thought I transformed the ugliest dresser 10 years ago ;) It deserves a feature.
Very nice!
That's probably the best "after" I've ever seen. It's just gorgeous!
So very very pretty! I just love the wood tone flowers --- they really make it that much more special than regular painted-on flowers would have been --- and painted on flowers would have been nice too. But the sanding really gives it class!
Wow, just even as a plain slate grey it would have been impressive. Good job!
Wow! Great transformation!
I think my favorite part is how she waited for inspiration to strike. So often we see a potential project and dismiss it because we're not immediately inspired, or we rush into a DIY without really thinking it through and miss the opportunity to do something truly unique. Thanks for the reminder that it's okay to wait for the perfect idea.
Seriously...You all are making me cry!!!!! YOU all are too SWEET and Genuine!!
Thank you all so much!
Karin
www.artisbeauty.net
TOTALLY awesome! And I LOVE the "double breasted" look of the knobs in what used to be handle-holes! Amazing!
This girl can makeover anything!!!!
Dang girl, I didn't know you were a JEDI.
Nicely done. And kudos to FIL for spotting a diamond in the rough. REALLY rough. I would have totally passed that by.
gorgeous and a sweet story.
I'm firmly in the "no paint ever" club, and this makes my jaw drop. Excellent work. Brava!
Truly an amazing transformation. It turned out beautifully.
I second all of the above! Creative, awesome dumpster find, not my style but, pretty!
Totally one to shut up those that bitch about painting vintage furniture, this is the poster child for the "pro-painting" movement!!! :)
Beautiful!
@JEANIES: I think the wood whiners are prefer all felled trees to remain paint-free, vintage or not.
I, too, am firmly in the "please, for the love of god, don't paint that beautiful wood" camp with few exceptions... this being one of them!
I love what you did with the design and think it is really crafty and lovely that instead of more paint, you sanded down the dresser for the colouring of the flowers to showcase and pay homage to the wood underneath. Two thumbs way, way up! It would also look really beautiful with a deep burgundy or perhaps pale olive green crushed velvet or satin runner on the top with teardrop beading at either tapered end... but maybe that is more my taste than yours. :-p
I think why so many people hate painted wood is because it is seen as (usually permanently) destroying an otherwise salvageable and/or otherwise beautiful piece of furniture that is of a time and place and craftsmen standard that is hard to find today... and to replace it with some trendy, cheap-looking Ikea-esque abomination that will be out of fashion in a few short years. This is totally the opposite and is exactly the type of situation people SHOULD paint furniture in. I love it. Bravo.
My one biggest complaint about the chalkboard paint craze is that chalk makes a big mess. This piece managed to take that chalkboard aesthetic and turn it into something durable, permanent, and mess-free -- very creative!
This is beautiful. Seriously beautiful.
NO WAY! So inspiring!
nice improvement for something ready to become landfill. recycle reuse reduce!
well done.
I think this is really well done.
Most of us "wood whiners"' only whine when the wood is worth restoring, of a type that is increasingly rare or hard to find or the piece is exceptional or at least above run of the mill. We do not believe that all pieces need to be refinshed wood. Some pieces are not exceptional unless they are painted because they are fairly plain or utilitarian in design or as in this case the condition of the wood pretty much leaves painting as the only option. I am not "pro paint" or "pro wood" but think that the choice should be made on a piece by piece basis based on tha above factors, condition, style and type and quality of the wood. There is an abundance of pieces out there for which painting is the best solution and this is certainly one of them as evidenced by both the before and after pictures (as well as the ones of the work in progress).
Wow, superb restoration job. I probably would have looked at that piece and kept on walking. Beautiful and unique.
OMG. You are a superhero... this is amazing!
I liked the before ;)
have to agree with HINMELB, i liked the before too. i probably would've finished it with a clear glossy coat and put on some matte chrome drawer pulls to go with the decayed-urban look.
"Slow clap. You seriously deserve it."
Ouch, Jess13. I didn't like it either but that's just mean.
It's a nice idea, but the rendition lets it down. A minimal graphic like this needs to be perfect. It doesn't help that Karen signed it, which makes the whole thing seem pretentious.
To Blandwagon Beauty might bring happiness, but happiness always brings beauty
This is one of my favorites--but Karin you are incredibly inspiring. I know you cannot see all the people to whom you inspire and make smile, but you are gifted and we are so glad to be your fans. Do not let those who do not appreciate your work get you down, my friend. You are an artist, with a beautiful heart, those who do not appreciate your art, are missing something themselves. Remember that. Remember that.
Just not my style at all. I find it really gaudy!
@Blandwagon, there are parts of the world where a slow clap is a high COMPLIMENT. How rude to assume he meant the other.
This piece is a real save. It's not something I would do, but it's a thousand percent better than it was, and it's meaningful to the owner, so that's pretty much perfect!
@bijou330 - oh, awkward... I was being facetious!
That being said, while I agree this dresser had nowhere to go but up, this isn't my pick of re-do's. I don't find the 'art' very appealing.
@bijou33-I think it's hysterical that someone actually agreed with you!! Just goes to show that there's something for everyone in this world. As for this piece, I really don't get what all the raves are about; I've seen far, far better restorations in these pages and many others on line. It WAS a valiant effort to make something nice from something that was truly frightful to look at. But beyond that it's rather ho-hum... I would have liked it 100x better without the flower and with some really special hardware instead.
That looks amazing! Great work
Agree w/KATHIEC. Not a favorite of mine either. Those flowers, well, they just don't do it.
Looking at the after makes me happy. And isn't that what design should be about. People, go for what makes you happy. That's my theme and I'm sticking to it!
omg this is amazing!! I LOVE IT!!!
If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all.