I used to be sheepish about painting pieces dark colors, but after seeing how beautiful Grace’s dining chairs look in the new D*S office — elegant and dramatic in a fresh coat of midnight gray blue — I’m completely convinced that it can be done well. These two projects are further proof of the transformative power of dark hues. The before and after comparison of this dresser makeover from San Francisco-based graphic designer Kate Koeppel is like day and night, almost literally. The modern bronze handles look fantastic against the new graphite color, and this piece suddenly has an understated chicness that it simply couldn’t achieve in its former gilded state. Amazing job, Kate! — Kate
Have a Before & After you’d like to share? Shoot me an email with your images right here! (Low res, under 500k per image, please.)
Time: 10–12 hours (not including drying time)
Cost: $200 total (including a few tools, sandpaper, paint, hardware and the dresser itself for $100)
Basic Steps: Over the course of two weekends, we sanded, primed and painted — the sanding portion of our project took quite a few hours — using both the electric sander and working by hand on all the curved and carved parts. After sanding and wiping the whole thing down inside and out, we primed the dresser with two coats, sanding lightly between coats. We let the primer cure for 48 hours, then wiped the whole dresser down again to get rid of stray dust and help ensure a very smooth surface for the final paint color.
We used sponge cabinet rollers to get a really smooth coat and an angled sponge to get into all the carved details without leaving any brush strokes. We picked a satin eggshell finish, after finally settling on Benjamin Moore “Gray.” Again, the dresser needed two coats of paint, and we sanded lightly between coats to keep the final finish smooth.
My advice would be to always vacuum the piece of furniture and do a quick moist wipe down with a cloth or sponge between sanding and painting at each step, and always do a little fine-grit sanding between the final coats to ensure a very smooth finish. I’d also recommend having a partner painting with you, to make the job go faster, and to help each other maneuver the furniture to get the hard-to-reach cracks and tight spots when painting and sanding! — Kate Koeppel
See Laura’s card catalog renovation after the jump!
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