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.

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dresser with medium stained wood finish before being painted with text overlay before

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!)

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Vintage Dresser Painted with Teal Furniture Paint

Table of Contents

Supplies Used:

before photo of the vintage modern style 3 drawer chest of drawers — Before

Step 1: Prep for 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.

Learn more about How to Prepare Furniture For Painting here.

Prep is everything if you want a durable paint finish!

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

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 so the paint wouldn’t get inside of the drawer when I sprayed on the paint.

Step 2: Prime

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 Primer 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.