Furniture Face-lift: Dresser and Jelly-jar shelves

A coat of paint can make a world of difference for some pieces of furniture. And, when the local hardware store sells paint returns for pretty cheap; most gallons are $5, and most quarts are $1, I'm usually not too picky about the colors I'm getting for cheap.

Luckily I've scored some decent colors (I am kind of picky!), and earlier this summer found a gallon of light gray and quart of purple. I used the gray as a primer coat on the front door I scored, mainly to cover up the red that doesn't quite go with the house color. The door still hasn't been hung, but we're getting closer.

There are two pieces that needed a little face-lift now that the two rooms have been painted: my dresser, and a shallow shelf that is going to go in the guest croffice. The gray was perfect for both pieces and against the room wall colors, and the purple was a good accent against the gray for the dresser

Dresser

This dresser has been in my possession for a while now. It traveled from CO when I moved back from Durango about 9 years ago (holy mackerel - it's been a while!), and I can't remember if it was in my room at the house there or if it was one of the roommates.

The dresser was kind of a purple/blue color.
Not bad, but not great in the newly painted room

I had ignored the color until it was time to move it into the newly painted bedroom. It wasn't a bad color, but it wasn't awesome, either, and the drawer pulls were plain wood, not even stained or sealed. So as I wrapped up the painting of the room, I disassembled the dresser and gave it a fresh coat of paint.

Clean and fresh looking

Purple accent

I debated adding a little more color on the dresser - you can see in the close-up of the drawer pulls that there is a thin routed detail on the dresser drawers that I thought about painting. I haven't yet, but could always add color down the road a bit.

Jelly Jar Shelf

The jelly-jar shelf was a free score off Front Porch Forum last spring. It needed some work on the bottom where the wood had started to rot, but was in good shape the rest of the way up. I hadn't done anything with it, and it moved around the garage and back porch until this fall when I decided that I would use it in the guest croffice once the rooms were moved around and painted.

I loved the color. . . but alas, it didn't go with the room.

I actually really liked the turquoise, but the shelf was dirty from being stored in a shed for several years which no amount of elbow grease seemed to be helping for. Also, once the room was painted, it was clear that the color wasn't quite right. Since I was already paining the dresser, I thought I'd give this a coat of paint, too. I cut off the bottom shelf that was rotted (yay circular saw!), but kept part intact - the peg board back may provide useful for hanging things.

Good-bye rotty bottom
(OCD friends, please ignore the less than straight cut,
I'm still new to the power of the circular saw!)

Ready to for the room!

I haven't yet done so, but plan to mount it on the wall to store miscellaneous crafting and desk supplies, as well as display some photos and the few Hummels that I have.