Vintage Dresser Painted with Teal Furniture Paint

Check out this vintage dresser painted with teal furniture paint from Fusion Mineral Paint. I’m sharing how you can make your own teal painted dresser with this dresser as inspiration.

Get more ideas for DIY dresser makeovers here.

dresser with medium stained wood finish before painting

A nice little family contacted me and asked if I wanted this dresser for free! Isn’t that amazing?

It’s a high quality piece, though it didn’t have a makers mark on it. But it’s the perfect size for a bedside table or for a kid’s dresser. And I love the vintage modern style!

So of course I snatched it right up (while I thanked them profusely!)

Table of Contents

Supplies Used for Vintage Dresser Painted with Teal Furniture Paint

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Prepping Dresser for Teal Paint

To start off, I prepped the dresser for paint. Yeah I know, I want to skip this step too.

But whenever I have, I’ve always regretted it because my paint job didn’t look as good or it wasn’t very durable in the end.

Prep is everything if you want a durable paint finish! Learn more about how to prepare furniture for painting here.

First I removed the hardware and then I cleaned the dresser with Krud Kutter and a damp rag.

bottle of krud kutter original cleaner degreaser

The Krud Kutter cleans off oils and grease on the surface so the paint can stick better. Check out how to clean furniture before painting to learn more.

Then I scuff-sanded the entire dresser with 220 grit sandpaper. Scuff sanding just means to sand the surface just enough that the surface is scuffed. It basically makes it so the paint can hold on better.

(Think of trying to hold onto something slick… it’s really hard to hold onto it. But if it has a little bit of a texture to it, it’s so much easier to hold onto. The same thing happens with furniture and paint.)

Learn more about the importance of sanding before painting furniture here.

After scuff sanding, I used my shop vac with the brush attachment to suck up all of the dust, and I used a tack cloth to pick up any remaining specks of dust that were left behind.

(Tack cloths are amazing and so much better at picking up dust than a wet rag!)

When it was dry, I taped off the drawers with this technique from this post on how to prevent overspray when painting furniture so the paint wouldn’t get inside of the drawer when I sprayed on the paint.

Priming Before Painting Dresser Teal

Yeah, you’re probably going to be tempted to skip over this step too. And it might be just fine… or you might end up wishing that you would have taken time to just do it.

The biggest reason why I prime before I paint is so the wood underneath doesn’t bleed through, causing stains in your paint job.

It’s weird. Honestly, I didn’t know about it for a while after I really started to paint furniture. And I had no idea what it was when it started happening.

I just kept trying to paint over the stains to cover them up… until I realized that wasn’t working. haha

Clear shellac is amazing at blocking stains, and I love that it’s clear, so I can distress the edges of the furniture to make the wood show through a bit.

Check out my list of the best primers for painting furniture here.

Yeah, it’s also weird that shellac can be used as a primer. But it really works. It’s actually the base of one of the best primers ever.

But it stinks, so I prefer to spray the clear shellac on outside and with a respirator on.

In the end, I sprayed 2 coats of shellac on, waiting at least an hour in between coats, and then letting it dry overnight so it has extra time to seal the wood.

Painting Dresser with Teal Paint

After the shellac primer was dry, I painted the dresser. I used my Fuji paint sprayer to spray the Homestead Blue Fusion Mineral Paint on without any brush marks.

Check out my Fusion Mineral Paint vs Heirloom Traditions Paint comparison to learn more.

top view of the painted drawers partially pulled out and staggered

I ended up spraying 2 coats to get full coverage, and I did thin it out a little bit. Read more about how to use the Fuji Q4 Platinum paint sprayer here.

You can also see how we painted this flat file cabinet in Fusion’s Coal Black with our more budget-friendly paint sprayer in this repainting furniture makeover.

painted dresser with drawers pulled partially out while letting the paint dry

After the second coat was dry, I sanded the dresser with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out and distress the edges a little bit. Read this post to learn all about distressing furniture.

And then I cleaned up the dust again with my shop vac and tack cloth.

Topcoating Teal Painted Dresser

Then I put some of my favorite topcoat into the paint sprayer and I sprayed 3 coats of it, letting it dry between coats. Check out my list of the best topcoats for painting furniture here.

quart container of varathane polyurethane waterbased topcoat

spraying topcoat with the paint sprayer onto teal painted dresser

I also sanded it smooth with 400 grit sandpaper (it doesn’t scratch as much) before the last coat to make the poly feel super smooth.

Adding Hardware to Teal Painted Dresser

Then I finished off the dresser with some of my DIY leather pulls. I love these leather pulls because you can make them into any size, so they are easy to replace an odd size of drawer pulls.

Top view of teal painted dresser with leather pulls

Here’s what it looks like now! Let me know in the comments what you think! Check out more teal painted furniture ideas here.

Closeup of the corner of the teal blue painted dresser

full shot of the teal blue 3 drawer dresser with leather pulls

More Before And After Makeovers

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