One day last year, my mom and I visited her storage unit for something completely unrelated to this little dresser (isn't that how things always happen?). The dresser, which I believe used to belong to my sister-in-law is something you would find in an unfinished furniture store. It's solid wood with dovetail construction and no metal/plastic workings. However, it's not a vintage piece. It has two small holes in the top (possibly it used to have an attached mirror). I immediately saw the potential in it and asked my mom if I could take it home. Looking to eventually be free of her rental storage unit, she said yes.
Our kitchen counter space is limited so years ago (we purchased our home 14 years ago) I constructed this shelf to hold our microwave. The open shelf cart was being used for storage and was practical but an eyesore in my opinion. I have issues with visual clutter.
To give you an idea of where this cart was situated in our kitchen/dining area, here are a few pictures of those spaces.
The door to the garage is just to the right of the stainless trash can you see in the bottom right corner of this photo. The cart was located to the right of the door.
This photo was taken standing at the far end of the kitchen (duh). You can see the microwave and cart over there on the left side of the dining area. Lucky for us, its location didn't impede the pulling out of the chairs in any way. The table is a 50" round and there is room to pull the chairs out comfortably and still walk by (if you suck it in while doing so--ha ha).
Okay, so now that you have a feel for the layout of the rooms, onto the project. . .
We tried using the dresser as an entry table for a little while but it was a bit too big for the space. I decided it would be more useful in our dining area as a replacement for the cart.
This dresser sat in our dining area for several months being used in the same fashion as it is now, but just in its found state. I purchased oil rubbed bronze (ORB) bin pulls on eBay for less than $2 a pull with the idea that when I made the time and the weather cooperated, I would paint the dresser and attach the new pulls.
The dresser didn't have a coat of varnish on it so I just painted directly onto the wood using two coats of white semi-gloss paint I had on hand. I left the top unpainted because that's where the microwave would sit and it would just scratch the paint up. Plus, I've seen on more than a few blogs people who have painted dressers and left the top natural and I looove the look.
I used fine sandpaper to scuff up all of the edges to bring out the detail. This dresser is going to get lots of use and pre-aging it will make the marks we put into it not as noticeable.
ORB pulls are attached.
I love how rich the top looks in contrast with the white.
I think the dresser takes up less visual space and looks more "finished" now that it's painted. I store small Tupperware/Rubbermaid containers, reuseable water bottles and such in the drawers (things that easily get lost in the back of a deep kitchen cupboard).
I'm thinking about adding a towel bar on the left side and maybe a hook or two on the right for potholders.
There is plenty of space for Rosie's food dishes and room to walk around the table.
Please come back and visit soon.
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