Birthday Present

No, it's not my birthday!

At the Spring Market last month, I met a woman who wanted to re-decorate her daughter's bedroom for a birthday present. She already owned a lovely vintage-y bedroom set which included a queen-size headboard, a nightstand, a 6-foot dresser, and a tri-fold mirror. However, it was boring BROWN, and the finish on top of the nightstand and dresser was in bad shape. She had already started sanding the headboard down to paint it, but quickly tired of the project.

Lucky for her...I never seem to get tired of these kinds of projects!

I neglected to take "before" pictures.

I was in kind of a hurry, you see, as by the time I got the bedroom set,
there was only ONE WEEK to get it done before the big day!

Here are some "in progress" shots. Don't you love the pretty carved details on the bottom of the dresser and the cupboard doors?

Such a pretty feminine headboard...

The mirror was a heavy beast! I took it apart in order to manage it better.

The paint color I used is "Pillar White" from Behr Ultra. The bedroom was going to have white wainscotting and gray paint, so we chose to glaze the furniture with black to show off the pretty details and set it apart from the wainscotting.

Don't you love how much better the carvings stand out with a little glaze?

I kept the original handles, but painted them white. Then I dry-brushed silver, and then black paint over them to highlight the details and give the a little instant "age." I really loved how they turned out.


Hard to take a good picture of a huge mirror! I was too nervous to set it up without having at least two people to brace it. The thought of breaking that enormous bevel-edge mirror almost gave me hives!

The headboard had some beautiful layered molding.

A close-up of the headboard detail...

The enormous dresser is a real show-stopper.


It has has three more drawers behind the cupboard doors...

Here's the big picture....

I finished off the set with some light distressing here and there, and several coats of polyacrylic. I hope it was a wonderful birthday!