apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

What *is* your style?

I think I need to know more about your style than the fact that you like grasscloth, because grasscloth will wear so very badly, it will look pretty terrible pretty quickly, even if you manage to come up with some clever way to make it look right, which I'm having a hard time imagining.

Original poster here. I love modern, natural, clean design, like Danish modern furniture, also texture on neutral colors, and I'm a fan of Colonial Caribbean, wicker, rattan, caning. One of my favorite spreads from Domino is the old Dutch Colonial house in Africa with the furniture painted a mix of white paint and emulsion (June/ July 2007, page 127) and also p. 70 from the Nov. 2006 Domino where someone painted a cabinet with light green automotive paint.

Thank you!

Given your style, I'd think that the tall bureau and nightstand as-is would work just fine (unless you wanted to add some turned legs at the base of the bureau)

As for the painted chest - I'd post it on Craigslist and use the funds to get other pieces that are more in keeping with your taste.

As far as the rest of the room - I'd put your grasscloth dreams up on the walls and swap out the existing rug for one made of seagrass - and of course new bedding.

Hang on a second. You were given these three piece of furniture, but you don't like them and they're not your style?

This might seem obvious, but my inclination would be to sell them on Craigslist to someone(s) who will like and appreciate them, and use the money to buy pieces that YOU love -- perhaps from someone else on Craigslist who's trying to unload the dresser of their nighmares/your dreams. ;)

I have covered the top of a dresser with burlap. It looks a fair bit like grass cloth.

I'm with Anna, craigslist them and save the cash for when you find something that is your style.

Original poster back - not going to get any dough for these pieces. Looking for some creative DIY solutions!

Love the burlap idea.

Having furniture you need right now is more important than what they look like. I don't know what your lifestyle is right now that taking furniture you don't like preceded finding furniture you do like to buy, but I've been there (still partially there). Decide what you really do need and what you could do without before you just purge on earlier advice, but ideally you want items you like rather than ruin stuff you already have.

I don't know the size of your space, but the best adjustment you can make in the interim is to paint and find new handles. I would also list them in the order to go, and crazy as it seems, don't change the first that can go. Offer it back if you can, it seems nicer than trying to make money off it, and if it can't go back, don't waste time changing it. I am mostly imagining the green one with the printed swags all over it. It's small, maybe you don't need it. No matter what you do to it, when it's time to heave it out of your life, the person who gets it will do something else to it anyway. The black one is also small but less devastatingly in need of change.

Refinishing furniture is one of my least favorite things to do, so if you need these really, keep in mind how long you will need to keep them (and if that's because you really need to or just have that much stuff) vs. how long you will spend trying to make them look different, and adjust your idea how to make them fit in your style.

Sell them and buy one piece that is your style. Better to have one piece you love then having many you dislike or trying to change.

Heck, having free furniture that you aren't overly attached to, and that you don't want to sell - just frees you up to do anything creative you want to it!!

If you want to paint over them you will need to sand them down slightly so the surface is slightly rough. Since you are doing three, you might want to invest in a palm sander... Check out the recent January Jumpstart posts for some idea and instructionals (one person even mirrored her chest of drawers!). Spray paint would be easiest. Taking all of the current finish and paint off and refinishing the wood would be a lot more work - and you would need to check out the quality of the wood to see if it would be worth the effort. There is now spray lacquer out in red, white and black- pretty easy. Or spray paint it to an even color and them handpaint "whitewash it"...

Grasscloth seems totally doable. Put a bunch of coats of polyurethane over it when you are done to protect it. Check out http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/january-jumpstart-entries/southwest-3-kate3s-shoe-cabinet-landing-strip--041162 Collage it?!

You could try your hand at faux painting rattan I suppose...

Change out handles as needed. If you like a natural casual look you could replace them with leather pulls or twine or something. See what you have around that you would like to incorporate. Or what you come across. Or browse handles at the stores.

Look at the style of things you like, see how they can be applied to the pieces you have.

Be as creative as you like! If you "mess it up" you can always do something else to it- or it isn't a huge loss because it isn't something precious.

I'd say for the nightstand it will be hard to change such distinct "pottery barn" style without changing the legs - slim metal ones might make it more modern- and the pulls. For the 2nd chest it will be hard to see how to change the style with the strongly period drawer pulls on it, so try removing them and then see what you "see". The bottom one seems like it could be easiest to work with first - changing the paint job would change its style quickly (although it will be work painting around the metal hardware).

Have fun with it - how often do we get to do whatever we like to our furniture?!

Here's what I would do with the bottom one -- first, just prime it, so that you can at least tell what's REALLY going on with it, because right now, it's so busy you can't even tell! Then decide what's next with it.

If you're going to do something with burlap, I'm pretty sure that I would put some kind of frame around the edges of the burlap, and then seal with something clear, or possibly paint it, and possibly do some kind of stain over the paint of it to emphasize the texture.

Someone probably already said this, but simply swapping out the door pulls can work wonders, particularly on the first piece. I feel like all of them you could make work in a really eclectic space -- maybe try creative ways of mixing and matching them with your existing furniture? I would hesitate to paint over the painted cabinet unless it's a really inexpensive piece. That one someone might really love, and it would be kind of a shame to paint over it if there's someone else out there who might appreciate it.

I'm not real crazy about the middle cabinet -- it feels the most heavy and traditional to me. The last one at least you could make work as a kind of breezy summer type piece, and the first one is simple enough that a change of a pull and the right lamp and you don't even notice that it's not *exactly* right.

But i'm kind of rambling!

DWF - I am thinking the painted cabinet looks like something you'd find in TJ Maxx or Marshalls - I doubt it is super-valuable...