Saturday Project : Kid’s Ikea Dresser

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Confession time : Jack, my almost 6 year old, is still using his baby changing table as his dresser. The horror!

With a Mom that is a self-proclaimed furniture addict, it was humorous that he didn’t have a big kid dresser to fit his style. So when I remembered that I had an Ikea Tarva in my furniture pile in the basement (yes, furniture pile…. don’t judge) I knew I could make a quick Saturday project of it with my CeCe Caldwell Paint. It’s a pretty plain dresser, no real character or interesting lines, comes unfinished, and the price honestly can’t be beat. When you move as much as we do we can’t really become attached to anything – it’s all in danger of being damaged or lost by the movers.

I ran up into his room and took a peek at his sheets – I had a feeling one of the dinosaurs on his bedding would perfectly match the can of CeCe Caldwell Chesapeake Blue I had that was just sitting on my shelf, waiting to be popped open. And to my delight, it was a perfect match!

I started by laying the dresser down on it’s back and painting the legs. I like starting a project from the bottom up so I don’t have to worry about it when I am working on the parts that are seen more. Sidenote : I had already pre-stained this dresser last year when I first purchased it but had never finished the project. Even if I hadn’t pre-stained it, CeCe Caldwell’s Stains only take 2 hours to dry and they include the top coat so this still would have been a quick afternoon project.

After the legs had dried, I stood it up and applied two coats to the entire piece. Each coat takes about twenty minutes to fully dry and while I was waiting, I started brainstorming what fun little touch I wanted to add . Jack’s pillow on his bed has a touch of green in it, as does his bathroom towels and rug, so I went rooting around my paint stash and found the tiniest bit of acrylic green paint that perfectly matched! See where I was going with this? 🙂

It’s just a simple stripe but it really helped tie the piece in with the colors Jack has going on in his room. After the stripe dried, I took fine grit sandpaper and went over the entire piece, lightly distressing the edges and removing the “tooth” on the dried paint. Also be sure to check corners and make sure you get rid of any paint drips or brush hairs that may have come off on your project. Next, I started the part that makes the piece come alive – the wax! CeCe Caldwell has the most incredible Waxing Cream that smells divine and really wakes up the color.

I love seeing what wax does to paint that has been dulled by sanding. And not only does this wax dry really fast, it hardens to an incredibly durable finish. Durable enough to put up with Mr. Paddington Fish’s habitat and all that Jack will collect on the top of his new dresser. I’m envisioning rocks (tons of them), coins, interesting “fossils” and of course, clippings from the garden. I finished the dresser by painting the knobs with the green paint and quickly sweet talked my husband into bringing the dresser to Jack’s room so I could marvel at it. It’s so perfect for him! The perfect height, the perfect size, and I don’t have to worry about him sleeping next to a freshly painted piece of furniture because there are no toxic chemicals or VOC’s in CeCe Caldwell Paints! That makes this green & crunchy Mama super happy!