Holy crap! Fantastic paint choice. Are the handles the same? If they are they look 1000% better against that green.

Amazing. How did she create her own glaze?

Love it!

Cute!

Nice work! Love the color :)

This reminds me of the antiqued/colonial look that was so popular in the late 60's/early 70's...

This brings up a personal question: I have a 70s-era Lane cedar chest, painted Chinese red with a tapestry top. It really clashes with everything in my bedroom. Can I repaint & reupholster it without ruining a future antique? (I've gotten mixed responses from furniture folks.)

bepsf - I was just thinking the same thing. My mother refinished a piece very like this back then, in the same color.

I am usually not a fan of painting wood furniture, but this look great!

I personally don't like it. With the feaux antique finish on an antique piece it looks like it was bought at a Pottery Barn or something similar.

So pretty! Very Anthropologie-y!

Great job. I agree the handles look so much better against the green.

That color is giving me childhood flashbacks. This green-brown paint/glaze technique was all over the place in the 70s. At the time I didn't like it, but now I think there's an appeal, in an ironic sense.

When I saw the first picture, I immediately thought, "If she painted that beautiful dresser, I'm going to cry."

I am currently holding back tears.

I spend a lot of time looking for the perfect antique piece of furniture for this or that room. And then I see it on AT or some other site, painted in some bright color.

Why? Why must you all do this to perfectly good antiques?

Why can't you just paint your walls and let the beautiful wood finish of the piece speak for itself??

Love the look, and you're right, just what we did in the late 60's. Avocado green!

ChristinaLouise-

I know what you mean. I have lovely original antiques, and sometimes I get tired of them, but just don't have the heart to paint.
But like natural and love what Sarah has done here!

It ain't the same to paint the walls - done that to!

And, it's all beautiful!

Why? Why must you all do this to perfectly good antiques?

Because it's hers to do whatever she wants to it and she wanted to paint it.

Why can't you just paint your walls and let the beautiful wood finish of the piece speak for itself??

Because it's hers to do whatever she wants to it and she wanted to paint it.

All the hand-wringing over painting wood is rather annoying. If you don't like the look of painted furniture, there's a simple solution, don't paint your wood furniture. Problem solved.

Again, I love what she did.

Paint vs. no paint is becoming this year's Keep Calm and Carry On poster!

I also thought of the 60-70s pieces but this glaze looks better.

I'm with HouseBee. P.S. Love the dresser.

i'm with HouseBee too! old furniture is old furniture is old furniture. we imbue so much sentimentality, perceived quality and value on these pieces that they become more than what they are - old furniture.

nicely done Sarah.

madampince...if the piece has already been painted (as in it's not the original finish) then whatever you do to it now will not do anything to it's "antique" value...it's already devalued. if it has the original finish and you want to maintain the value then do not paint it. before you fret over the decison you might want to get it appraised. unfortunately in my experience ( having just gone thru the process of liquidating my mom's house) many things we think have a great value do not because of the market or lack there of.

I clicked just to see the people who complain about painting furniture comments. LOL. Always on posts like this. BROKEN RECORD!

It looks great.

It looks great - a real improvement over the original.

Looks great!

I'm personally bummed but conceptually pro choice about painting wood..But am I the only one who would have liked to see new hardware on this item? I have found that switching to new hardware and simply lightly buffing distressed wood can make a fresher change than painting and keeping old hardware...what do you guys think?

Oh i love a great makeover.. and the green color looks great. Just a few months ago we did our first furniture makeover too. You can see it here: http://henatayeb.blogspot.com/2009/12/out-first-makeover.html#comments

I don't like the after either, and the faux antique finish (how ironic, huh?) makes it look like something from pier 1 imports; painting it just sucked the character right out of it.

Hey, I like it. And all the fussing about painting the wood, she said the finish was all goofed up and needed work anyway. Probably not worth the effort and awfulness to strip and refinish, if it would even help it. Painting is a good solution.

Nice work :D

I personally can't paint over wood, but this is beautiful. My mother did two pieces in this same color in the 70's, and I gave both of them away. Seeing this, I wish I had kept them.

This is really a beautiful piece. And I applaud her for keeping the original hardware. Too many people through away old hardware without thinking. This is just exceptional. I think it looks better painted, especially with the curved legs.

Some of the most expensive furniture in the world is veneer, or painted. I have a Henredon red secretary that was seven grand retail, in the 70's. It's my favorite piece of furniture. (I got it at a decorators only clearance sale.)

Personally, I think she did an amazing job with this piece. It's not as though she slapped on some chalky white boring paint or something (though even if she had, it's her absolute right to do so.)

I think the green and the texture of the glaze elevate this piece completely. It wasn't a priceless, perfectly made antique before. In fact, it looked quite ordinary and boring.

But I think the new finish brings out the character a lot more than the old stain. I think the details stand out a lot more in the after.

I'm normally of the "don't paint the wood" opinion, but I think this came out very nice. I think it is the extra step of adding the custom glaze that sold me on it. It just adds that extra depth to the finish that painted furniture just doesn't normally have.

I'm normally a don't-paint-antiques person, but the veneer on this piece was already ruined. New veneer wouldn't be any more authentic than paint.

It's nice that you stayed with a Provencal-style color instead of trendy glossy white.

P.S. The paint-or-no-paint argument really depends on what kind of "old" furniture you have. A real antique (i.e. a hand-crafted piece from before the Industrial Revolution) should NEVER be painted. They're rare, and once they've been painted, their original finish is ruined and can't be restored.

But most old furniture started its life in a factory. A lot of antique-style furniture was just cheap department store junk when it was new. There's no reason to revere it now that it's 50 years old.

If it's not handmade or a design icon, do whatever you want.

Really can't stand the antique looks. Looks like i want to just sand it down and either varnish it or paint it a really cool modern color.

HouseBee is right: "Because it's hers to do whatever she wants to it and she wanted to paint it."

If you OWN it, you can do whatever you WANT with it -- whether the item is an antique is irrelevant. If you don't like painted wood then don't paint wood.

I plan on painting a brick house in a couple of months. It's my house, I'll do what I want with it.

I don't understand why people feel so much personal attachment to a stranger's piece of furniture. It's not like she painted over the Sistene Chapel. She updated an old dresser. And she did a good job, to boot.

bepsf, I remember the trend in the late sixties as well. It was called "antiqueing" and the colors used were just like the ones in this project, greens or blues with a darker color rubbed on -- brown shoe polish was sometimes used. The style went out of fashion extremely rapidly. By the mid 70s, everyone was stripping the furniture and cursing the "antiquers." That being said, the dresser pictured is not a priceless antique, and it's not a "crime" to paint it. It's mass produced furniture from the 20s -- 30s. There are probably 500,000 dressers like this still kicking around in the U.S. I've got five of them, most made by Breuners. You can find them for $50 on craigslist every day of the week. /rant

Fashions and tastes come and go, and everything can be undone, except original finish on a priceless antique. That wasn't a priceless antique.

And fwiw, I think the dresser's lovely re-done.

What a beautiful, understated, tasteful re-do! I think it speaks of a refined and thoughtful design choice, given the popularity of antiques being painted in bright, pop colors in a semi or high gloss as among the first go-to options in re-do's. Restraint in one's design choices is a very under-appreciated trait... Kudos to Sarah!

A clean, elegant re-do. I hate the finish/colour in the 'before' photo, and now it looks fresh and pretty, without being too boxfresh. I have a battered old chest I'd like to do this to in a soft teal blue; can anyone tell me how one makes an antique glaze to go over it?

Thank you all for the lovely comments! There seems to be much debate over painting antique furniture. This particular piece was in rough shape; the veneer was chipped and damaged. And there looked to be ripped off duck tape on the top that you can't see in these pictures. The before picture really doesn't do justice to how rough it actually looked. The piece had great lines and potential; I just couldn't leave it looking so sad! I did leave the original hardware except i replaced the old glass knobs for new ones. I love taking old pieces and giving them a fresh new start! While I love giving a new life to sad and tired furniture; I've also left other pieces alone and just cleaned them up with some Old English and elbow grease. Thanks again for the great comments!

I love this! my son has a similar style dresser in his room that I painted blue with an antiqued glaze over it his has a mirror though. the finish on mine was super dark and badly in need of an update. I did change out my oval pulls though. well done!!! :)

Awesome job! Can you tell me what color green that you used?