apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

How about staining it a different color, like a teak or walnut?

What about painting each of the drawers a different color? The ones suggested seem to be fine.

Red.

Please do not paint. Please, please, please.

If you're convinced you need a different color then I'd apply a stain (after removing the sealant and a light sanding). There are some dark (almost black) stains that will allow you to see the grain and such. Painted wood is almost awful.

Argh! I hate when people on here want to paint beautiful wood furniture. That cherry wood looks great with that lime green paint.

AT, stop encouraging them! And gray, no less!

Paint it for crying out load! (It's furniture...not a Rembrandt)
I like the darker shade of green...

And I love painted furniture...

That gray would make it look like something out of a prison.

particle board and the like can be painted over without apology. but solid wood? why?

WHITE! I love white against bright colors.

If it's color you want, you'd probably be able to track down some drawer pulls that have an enameled center with a really bright color. I was considering some that had a bright chunk of turquoise running down a two-inch silver bar. That sort of thing is often on eBay and it's a considerably less time-consuming modification.

I'd take the time to strip and restain it. Cherry is very expensive and this piece will age extremely well if taken care of. Painted furniture is very popular right now, but it's sure to go out of style quite soon...

I agree - paint it if you want. Some painted furniture is great - preferably with some au natural too.

As beautiful and fine a wood as CherryWood is-
I agree w/ SeanG and others -
Please don't cover it up with Paint.

If it really bothers you as is- how about taking it to be refinished- stripped, and done in a Wenge/Expresso color- satin finish- or, a cerused/Limed finish, with a whitish glaze deep in the pores/and a darker finish atop..

AND, then

top the whole dresser with a piece of White Carrerra marble, or a piece of honed White Corian (you can purchase a "drop" from a Counter Supply/Counter Fabricator, cut to the size of your dresser.

then you'll really LOVE your dresser (and yourself- for not Painting over such a nice tree)

What about painting some of it white and leaving the wood grain in other parts?

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/tables-dining-occasional/roundup-wood-and-white-furniture-046454

maybe that's still not your style, but i agree that painting a solid cherry dresser is kind of a shame. Have you thought about trading it? I'm guessing someone on craigslist might trade it for one that's already painted...

If this is truly solid wood through and through - maybe you'd be happier if you refinished with a darker stain - walnut or ebony. It would be preferable, I think, to visibly preserve the grain of the wood.

I'd go to the library and check out a book or two on refinishing wood furniture - they may have some ideas that might appeal.

I'd paint it a silver color to match your bed. Could look cool? Could you somehow make a mirrored effect on it?

I've gotta say, though, that I think it would look best unpainted. Cherry wood is GREAT with lime green!

She has had it her whole life, so I am sure its not a perfect amazing new dresser. Give it some new life, geesh people. Wood is everywhere! haha.

I think it would look really nice with a deep, dark stain, such as walnut. I really think it would be a shame to paint it, but if you do insist upon doing so, red or white would look quite nice in the described room.

I love it when I find painted wood furniture in the thrift store, so then I can get the look I like without having the guilt of painting a solid wood piece! I say go for it. Also second the idea of painting it white and using some accent color drawer pulls in green. (green glass?). Putting a color against those walls would be hard, but if you do it make sure the color has the same "value" as the wall paint, i.e. is as soft/ bright as the wall paint and not darker or lighter, that will help the colors to go together considerably.

I think white against that green wall would look so fresh and bright and cheery! But I do agree with others in that is a quality piece of furniture and wood, so it would be a really good idea to keep the wood. Though I'm not sure it's possible to stain it a lighter shade.

RED would pop against the green walls

I'm in the no-paint camp. Too much painting of furniture on here. Stain it darker.

I'm in the "Don't Paint" camp - but perhaps the finish is old, scuffed and scratched and the piece isn't as quality as the R&B piece shown here?

If that's the case, I'd say that refinishing is the better option - but if there's painting to be done, then paint it Black.

Go ahead and paint it! It will still be wood underneath, and that's much better than living with painted particle board. Good for you for reusing an old piece and altering it to suit your needs. Not everybody loves wood.

I like the darker color, too. Black would be the historically correct color for this piece, if you care about that. It would look sharp, and painted pieces are not a trend on the decline at all. You can find painted pieces from very early American furniture makers.

Just do an excellent job with the paint, as high gloss will show every little bump and bubble. Good luck!

Why not stain it a darker color and change out the knobs?

Don't paint it! It is beautiful as it is! Cherrywood that color is very expensive. Sell it if you hate it. You will be pleasantly surprised how much it may fetch. In the meantime, paint something cheap from Ikea.

that isn't her dresser! its from Room and Board, hers just has similar lines

Goodness gracious, Megan you have your work cut out for you in plowing through all these comments!
Breakdown:
Stain it: 6
No paint! camp: 7
Paint it: 11
My two-bit is go for it and paint it! (Can't go wrong with either black or white)

You can't just stain solid cherry. Do some internet research, and you'll see that cherry has lots of problems with inconsistent acceptance of stain in different parts of the wood that can make the final result turn out blotchy. If you want to stain, you need to prep the wood carefully beforehand, and from what I can tell the experts usually recommend against it as not worth the effort.

If it is solid cherry, it should sell far above what Ikea wants for a couple new ones. Which makes someone else happy, and fixes any boredom the current owner may have with the piece.

I agree about painting 'real furniture'. There's a flood of antique style painted furniture in Europe now. It is new and cheap. But painting an old piece may make it fashionable, but it also turns something classic into a fad.

I forgot: I saw these wallpapered Ikea drawers recently. Something like that would not be bad, and wallpaper doesn't enter crevices and can easily be removed. I'd wallpaper the drawer fronts in that case, and put a cloth cover over top and sides.

Please don't paint it. Cherry is one of the most beautiful woods and ages to a beautiful red.

I think paint is fine. However, I have no suggestions. Painted furniture can get tiresome if you go with color, and that depends on whoever has to live with it.

I think stain is an alternate solution Megan may have overlooked. Even a color stain is milder than paint, I think, and somewhat of a compromise. What I'm most liking is that a person is waiting on the dresser they really want instead of replacing it with something inferior and less liked - might as well keep an old piece of furniture if you're going to do that.

I thought some of the make-over solutions for this piece sounded like a lot more cost and effort than it is worth, just to have something satisfactory until they save up for the piece they really love, but then if you did, you might love better what you already have. Unless you can make some dough from the rehab when you replace it, don't spend overly on refinishing it just to look at it another year or so.

Lacquer the drawer fronts your favourite colour and leave the case alone. Get some cool knobs. Done.

Wow, it's been really interesting reading everyone's comments about their opinions on wood and whether or not to paint it. I think in the end, we are all forgetting the big picture here. While everyone is entitled to their opinions about furniture, Megan has decided to paint it and is looking for suggestions on colors - not whether to paint it or not. There are certain pieces of furniture that look great as is with the original wood, but I've also taken many pieces of furniture and have had them lacquered because they were simply to outdated or did not go with the overall interior feel. After all, you can always sand it back down and stain it if you ever wanted to in the future if it really is solid wood.

If Megan has a stainless steel bed, I do think that painting it dark grey would not do very much to brighten the room up (although I love grey.) Because Megan has a bright green wall color, perhaps white lacquer or bright color like turquoise, a different and deeper shade of green like Emerald green would work. Something contrasting if she's open to bold colors like a shade between Red and Magenta would also look great for a splash of color.

Here's one other idea which I seldom see here in the states is to do a colored stain with a clear lacquer top coat. It's common in Japan and I really fell in love with it but haven't seen much of it here. The way it works is to re-stain the wood with a colored stain. You can still see the wood grains but it is stained a certain color like green or red (it's a slightly more washed out look to it and not obviously as brilliant as painting it a solid color). But finishing it off with a clear lacquerered coats gives it a more modern feel to it rather than a rustic look.

That's my two cents. Hope Megan will share with us the end result!

Karen

take a picture of the room and the dresser, and photoshop it first!

oh, and your dresser looks a whee bit like the hemnes dresser from ikea... and it comes in a few more variety of colors

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90121248

so how about painting only two drawers: one in each of the good colors submitted, one small drawer, one large, and leaving it at that, a bit askew.

I like the wood and white option. Just the frame white and leave the drawers natural.

I think you should leave the grain of the good... but then rub a paint collor into it a seal it....
I found this sideboard on the curb... and after stripping it loved the wood... but still wanted color in my apartment...
this was the perfect solution...

home this helps

and a link
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3145/2410250689_8153a1e72f_o.jpg
I think this preserves the beauty of the wood but also means you get some color....

that grey you said you wanted would look awesome this way!

wood color... geeze I'm a typo queen.

If your going to paint that dresser...I hope your a really good painter. You'll need to use a spray gun to get a professional look. Do you have a picture of a painted dresser that you like? For me those colors are sort of shabby chic. Maybe paint it and then sand it to look like a vintage piece. If your going for modern get the paint in high gloss and spray, SPRAY, SPRAY. Personally, I think that dresser is really nice the way it is. It has a modern look and shape. I agree with other opinions that new hardware is a better choice. Check out this website: http://www.coolknobsandpulls.com/about.cfm

Sorry, I didn't realize that wasn't the dresser you had. Unless the wood is perfect...paint it. Go for a satin finish. High Gloss is really hard to work with unless you spray it on. Go for the lighter color and get pulls to match the bed frame. The gray may be scary on such a big piece. Wait. Paint it high gloss white. it'll really pop against the green.

Put this piece on Craiglist! You could easily get a few 100 dollars and you can buy a cheap fiber board piece at target or a chairity/thrift store to paint. Cheaper pieces of wood like pine and chipboard replicas really do look better painted but a solid wood piece like this would need a really high end very expensive paint job to cover it.

you could even use both those colors and distress the piece. Start by using the blue/gray color as a base coat then put butchers wax on then go over with the cream. when all dried sand edges down to distress corners.

cream color
http://www.myperfectcolor.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MPC0006852

blue/gray color
http://www.myperfectcolor.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MPC0006707

These are not exact to the colors above but also real nice. maybee someone can post them.?

I would paint the dresser the grey with blue undertone. Orange and pinks complement light green well -- but I would think you would want your bedroom furniture to be in cool tones rather than warm tones.

After painting it grey, I recommend you go to anthropologie and pick out new knobs. They sell them in all shapes, sizes and styles.