Name: Jennifer
Time: 1 weekend
Cost: $80
"Chalkboard paint" have been perennial favourite reader search keywords, so we wouldn't be surprised if Jennifer's February Jumpstart proves to be one of the more popular DIY inspiration projects. Her February Jumpstart project customize a ho-hum dresser into something with a bit more pizazz, offering the additional feature of labeling each drawer. Click above for the pics and head below for all the instructions. Give Jennifer a THUMBS UP if you find this project helpful....
Materials used
TOOLS:
- paint primer
- rollers and paint trays
- drop cloth
- painter's tape for delicate surfaces
- base color (I used Martha Stewart India Ink in a semi-gloss finish)
- chalkboard paint
- chest of drawers that needs a new look
- new hardware (optional)
- chalk
STEPS:
- Prepare old dresser to be painted: wash surface, remove old hardware, etc.
- Paint on primer, let dry.
- Paint 3 coats of base color with appropriate drying time between each coat.
- Tape out the design for the "chalkboard" label areas. I decided on a various widths of angled lines, with one thick enough to act as the drawer label. (Be creative, I also thought it would look good with a simple rectangle, slightly smaller but mimicking the drawer shape.) Paint the taped-off areas. **Keep a wet rag handy when doing this part, just in case you go outide the lines.** Let dry.
- Attach new hardware. Label drawers with chalk. Enjoy.
RESOURCES:
I've had this chest of drawers for years and it never seemed to fit in my apartment. The drawers were too small for clothes. So, I thought the chalkboard labels would make it great for items that never seem to have a place. I was able to find all of the supplies at a big box hardware store.
Give Jennifer a THUMBS UP if you find this project helpful....
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This is a perfect solution for helping my boyfriend stay organized.
now, could you do a similar thing with the make-your-own chalkboard paint method (didn't you guys post that here a few months ago?) and just mix up enough for the write-on portions, so that you could use the same can of paint for the whole chest? that would be neat...i imagine that mixing in whatever the chalkboard paint ingredients are changes the look of the paint a little, so it would be easy to see where to write, but it would also be the same color paint as the rest of the piece.
cute idea. but i did like the dresser before and it's not that hard to remember what goes in a coupla drawers. also, only do this if you have cute handwriting.
now i sound like a whiner! boo me.
I think this is a great project for a really sad looking dresser in poor condition. However, in this instance you had an absolutely stunning antique wood dresser which might have best benefited from simply some new hardware!
A great idea, but I think it would be more appropriate for furniture that isn't already stunning.
A neat idea, especially for an office or art studio and in varying color palettes. I like the collection of Eva Zeisel ceramics, too...
Enough with the chalkboard!
THAT IS UGLY AND CHALKBOARD PAINT SUCKS!!! GIVE IT A REST!!!
Sorry guys, that's not a fine piece of antique furniture! It's a cheap, mass produced dresser from the 30s or 40s (which makes it ... not antique). Just look at the front drawers - the very obvious stripes are bad veneer matches. Just because it originally came from a tree does not make it sacrosanct!
I think it's an awesome idea, one that can inspire a lot of different ideas.
The dresser's not that great, but the chalkboard paint seems stupid. Why label a drawer "sweaters" when you can open it up, if you have such a faulty memory?
If you're going to do this, at least make the labels provocative.
Another example of AT:LA's low taste level.
That wood was beautiful, I don't mind people painting furniture but paint something that is utterly destroyed and would have to be refinished anyways or something that isn't even real wood for that matter, why cover up something that is already beautiful.
You should of sold this to someone who would of appreciated it for what it is.
Your just going to donate this in a few years and people will be cursing you for what you did to it. I swear I do every time I go thrift or antique stores... "why did this person think this was a good idea?"
Stop killing real wood furniture with paint! And chalk board pant is a twisting of the knife. If you can't respect it go buy your furniture at Ikea.
Ok, Ok
I was going to let let everyone say their piece, but you guys need to let the dresser go. I don't know if the before photo did this dresser too much justice, but it was really in bad shape and I don't see it surviving one more move. It falls apart and I have to put it back together every time. The drawers are hard to open so they are only good for things you will need every once and awhile. If it was in great or even good shape, I would have sold it to someone who likes that sort of thing. I don't believe in keeping furniture around that isn't functional and you don't enjoy, just because it is an "antique" ... or old.
These posts make me want to paint some furniture. The rigidity here is ridiculous.
I think people have inhaled a few too many cubic feet of chalkboard paint fumes around here (and not just on this entry...). At worst, this is no great loss. Lighten up.
This is definitely cool, and one thing that's cool is that you're tired of sweaters a few months later, and then it's bathing suits, because you want to wear a different one of THEM every day and need a drawerful, and now you erase one and write the others.
This is one of those things that definitely would make me keep the thing an extra ten years if I had done this to it, even if the drawers didn't work all that well.
Well done.