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Gray Washed Dresser Reveal

By Bre

Happy Monday Friends!! I shared a sneak peak on Instagram over the weekend of the makeover our dresser in the dining room got, and I’m so excited to be revealing it today with you!

Here are a few pictures to show you what it looked like before. This dresser sits on the back wall of our dining room right before you enter the kitchen, and houses all of my serve ware dishes, seasonal candles, and the top drawer is strictly my junk drawer! Yes I know you were probably curious if I had one, and now you know where.

And here is what it looked like last fall, in our dining room when we still had our black table.
I had always gone back and forth with giving it a makeover, but could never decide on if I wanted to paint it, and then what color, or if I wanted to sand it down and refinish it. The piece is solid wood, and was part of my mothers original bedroom set. It got it’s first makeover pre-blogging days about 9 years ago, and the hubby had his work cut out for him. Sanding down lots of layers, and removing lion faced hardware and tacky trim detail. We cleaned it up, and then stained it black, but like I said it was a long time ago, and once we built our new Farmhouse Table, my wheels started turning on transforming this piece as well.
I finally decided that, while there were so many options, I always love the gray washed look, or weathered oak finish that you see in Restoration Hardware. So while my budget couldn’t allow one of their pieces, I set out to get my own look. I started by sanding this piece down until all the black was gone. Then I gave it a coat of Minwax Special Walnut.
Once my stain was completely dry, I lightly sanded it and then applied a coat of Rust-oleum Sunbleached.
After:

It was just the change I was hoping for, and I love how it feels in the space now.  You will get to see how it looks in our dining room with the entire view, during my week of Thanksgiving Tables November 3-7. I’ve been busy working away creating 5, very different, tablescapes to share with all of you, and I hope you will join me and some of my favorite blogging friends. Until then, you can always catch up with me on the latest on Instagram (roomsforrent).

Comments

  1. Mari says

    Looks great! How did you apply the sunbleached stain so that it didn’t completely cover the walnut stain?

    • Bre says

      Hi Mari, the sun-bleached stain has a thin consistency to begin with. So when I applied it I only let it sit for a few seconds and then rubbed away the access, until it covered it the way I liked 🙂

  4. Angela says

    Hello there! This piece looks fantastic! I am trying to accomplish the same look on my bedroom set which is all sanded down and already stained in the same walnut you used. However, I wanted to ask how did you apply the sunbleached stain to get this thin coverage of it. Thank you!!!

  5. Aisha says

    I absolutely love this piece. I just bought a piece that I would like to upscale. It is an antique and I got it for 20 bucks at a local yard sale. I am so excited to try this. Thanks for sharing the tips. Can’t wait to use this on my item. I pray it looks as good as yours. Thanks again.:-)

    • Bre says

      Hi Arianne! I didn’t apply a poly, but you totally could. I used furniture wax, but you can finish it any way you like. I think it’s more personal preference, and depending on how the piece is used you might want to take more precaution in preserving it.

  10. Fran says

    LOVE!, this transformation. Want to do a new table top for dinning room like this color finish!! Working up the nerve!!

  14. Stephanie says

    Gorgeous! And thank you for sharing what stain colors you used to achieve the look…think this is exactly what my son’s pine bedroom furniture needs. 🙂

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