Painted Brown Vintage Dresser Makeover

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before photo of vintage 4 drawer tallboy dresser used in this makeover.
After photo of 4 drawer vintage dresser painted in a chocolate brown with raw wood front legs.

In these quick guides, I walk through the steps and products I used for a particular makeover. Interested in learning more about a particular step or process? Check out the links at the bottom of this post where I go into greater detail on each step.


A note on product links

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Steps I took to create this look:

  1. Cleaned the interior, back, and bottom with Dawn dish soap and water. Cleaned the finished surfaces with degreaser
  2. Stripped the finish off the legs with Stripwell QCS and then cleaned again with soap and water.
  3. Filled some areas of damaged veneer with Bondo
  4. Scuff sanded the entire piece with 220 grit sandpaper and my SurfPrep sander
  5. For the legs, I did a very light paint wash using a mixture of Melange paint colors, followed by a glaze using Maduro Brown (I used leftover paint wash and glaze from my dining room table project).
  6. Primed with shellac
  7. Painted in the color Maduro Brown by Melange Paints (this color has been discontinued. A similar (slightly darker) brown is Dark Horse.
  8. Sealed with General Finishes High Performance Top Coat and my favorite top coating brush (both the body and the legs
  9. Lined drawers with peel-and-stick wallpaper (I actually would not recommend this paper, or any other by this brand, it was incredibly difficult to install).
  10. Added new aged brass knobs using the existing hardware holes


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After photo of 4 drawer vintage dresser painted in a chocolate brown with raw wood front legs.
Close up of raw wood legs.
Close up of inside of drawers lined with beige floral peel and stick wallpaper.
Close up of top corner of dresser with aged brass knobs.

Want to learn more about each step? Check out the links below:

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After photo of 4 drawer vintage dresser painted in a chocolate brown with raw wood front legs.

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