The Teal Painted Dresser Makeover

Update your old worn-out antique dresser with some fun teal chalk paint! This teal painted dresser is the perfect teal – not too bright and in your face, and it has the perfect mix of blue to green. So you can paint your old furniture and use it in any room in your home!

Get more of our ideas for DIY dresser makeovers!

tall antique dresser before painting dark teal

I was in love with this dresser from the moment I saw it listed on a buy, trade, sell online group.

We had a heck of a time getting it home, and ended up asking the person selling it to deliver it to our home. That was after we tried and tried to fit it into our car. haha!

But that’s how badly I wanted it!

Table of Contents

Supplies Used for the Teal Painted Dresser

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Fixing Missing Trim on Dresser

If you look closely at the before photo, you can see that some of the bead detailing on the drawers were missing and there were some chips and damage in the wood.

I thought about making more of the beading by making a mold of the old detailing. And then on second thought, I wasn’t sure that I was up for all of that work with tiny details.

So I moved on to plan B. Which was pretty simple. I removed the beading on the third drawer by carefully prying it off where tiny little nails were holding it on. A super thin putty knife is perfect for this.

Then I filled in the missing beading on the 2nd and 4th drawer with the beading I had just removed from the 3rd drawer.

I cut the beading down with plyers, sanded it down a bit, and then glued it in place with wood glue. Easy peasy!!

When working with old furniture, don’t be afraid to mix things up a bit! If you don’t like the detailed trimming, you can usually easily remove it!

Learn more about how to repair broken trim on furniture here.

Closeup of antique dresser with fixed trim

Painting the Dresser Teal

Once the beading was fixed and the chips were repaired it was time to move on to painting the dresser! Yay!!

For this dresser, we used Jitterbug from Country Chic Paint‘s eco-friendly paint line. Thank goodness it only took half a pint of paint so I can use it for another project!

Check out more of the best blue chalk paint for furniture here.

Country Chic Paint offers high-quality no VOC chalk-style paint. They have some of the very best colors and the best part is that all of their products are eco-friendly!

Check out my honest and detailed Country Chic Paint Review here.

Check out my list of the top chalk paint brands here.

Before I painted, I made sure to prep the dresser for paint with a few simple steps.

I know that it’s tempting to skip prep and just start painting, but if you want your paint to actually stick and last a long time, you definitely need to prep the dresser for paint.

More on how to prep furniture for a long lasting finish here.

I sprayed two coats of Jitterbug on the entire piece with my absolute favorite little Wagner paint sprayer.

I love love love my sprayer and have a few articles (and videos) on how to use it. It’s so easy and so affordable it will blow your mind!

Here’s how to thin paint for a Wagner sprayer and how to use a Wagner Double Duty paint sprayer. And check out the best Wagner paint sprayers for furniture in this post.

After the paint was dry, I lightly distressed all of the edges and details and then sealed it with three coats of my favorite Varathane polyurethane. Learn the 6 best distressing furniture techniques here!

Chalk-style paint has to be sealed for it to be durable and wipeable. Otherwise, it will act kind of like a chalkboard. Which is great, until you spill something on it and need to wipe it off.

Wax and chalk-style paint have gone together since the beginning of chalk paint, but in my experience, it’s harder to apply, and it isn’t quite as durable. Learn more about what is chalk paint here.

Closeup of distressed chalk painted teal dresser with original hardware

More Before And After Makeovers

Click any of these “before” photos below to view the “after” of that makeover.

I personally like to spray my polyurethane with my paint sprayer. Learn ALL of my tips and tricks on how to spray polyurethane here! But you can brush it as well.

Country Chic Paint actually makes a painting sponge that is perfect for applying polyurethane. Just remember to not overbrush it (don’t go over it more than 2 times).

The finished product came out perfect and I cannot wait to paint another piece in Jitterbug! Learn more about how to paint furniture here!