The JUNKtion: The Masculine Dresser

Ahhhh yes, summer has arrived in Florida...and I went on a boat ride this afternoon to prove it! I started the day with taking my guard dog on a morning run. Next up I got some items ready to take to one of my booth's. I also had some errands to run and then I fluffed my booth up while I was there dropping my items off. Picked up and delivered a piece of furniture for a client, came home and gave my little puppy a much needed bath, got dinner ready to take out on the boat, did some painting, cleaned my kitchen, and last but not least, ended the day with a wonderful boat ride on my neighbors new boat (which included a picnic at the park where we docked). I have to get all this boating out of my system before the hubby returns, since he's not really a boat fan. Seriously, even I am tired thinking about what all I did today. I plan to be pretty lazy for the rest of tonight and catch up on some blog reading!

But first, here's the dresser I promised to share with you tonight:

Here was it's ever-so-scary beginning:

I couldn't tell you what this thing was covered in if my life depended on it, but it was pure evil. Some type of shiny shellac, urethane, grungy yellow/brownish nastiness is the best way I know how to describe it. And let me assure you this stuff was in no mood to be sanded off. And I wasn't in the mood to strip it, so Annie Sloan Chalk Paint came to my rescue. But first this guy needed to be cleaned up. It was very old and musty smelling, so I used my go-to-smell-remove-cleaner, vinegar. I gave this dresser a few coats of vinegar, to the point that it was dripping and then let the sun dry it out (repeated this process 3 times over the last couple of days). And, I'm glad to report the smell is virtually gone.

After an overall cleaning, I sanded the heck out of this with a 120 grit paper using my orbital sander. The body and the drawers got two coats of Chateau Grey ASCP, while my helper kept an eye on the neighborhood.

Next up I did some distressing using my orbital sander with a 220-grit. I mainly just hid the edges of this one. I added some hardware I had on hand that had been sprayed with oil rubbed bronze. I waxed the entire piece with Minwax Paste Wax in Natural (because quite frankly, when I can use this stuff, I do...it's a lot cheaper than the ASCP wax). I did follow up with ASCP dark wax on the edges, using a wax brush. I barely got the dark wax on my brush and then blotted it off on an old rag and then used a bit of a swirlish (yes, that one is a word too!) motion to blend it in on the edges. I also had a rag with clear wax on it that I used for blending as well.