Stained and Painted Tallboy

*This post contains affiliate links*

This Happy Saturday everyone!  I’m in the middle of trying to get the house back in order and cleaned up from a busy week.  How many of y’all save housework for Saturday?  I know it makes a lot of people cringe, but I don’t mind laundry and house cleaning on the weekend!  Weird huh?

Anyway, I wanted to take a break and show you guys a really handsome, two tone, painted and stained tallboy dresser I did this past December.  I was pretty excited to find this chest of drawers on Craigslist.  I could tell from the photos that it was solid wood and in great shape.  When I contacted the seller to arrange a pick up time, her response was, “oh wow I can’t believe someone really wants this.” Ha!!  The only bad thing about the whole pick-up ordeal was the fact the dresser was up two narrow flights of stairs….the seller failed to mention that part.  It was solid maple and so very heavy.  After the owner emptied all of the contents from the 8 drawers and took the TV off of the top (yeah, I guess they really didn’t think we would show up to get it at our arranged time because they didn’t have it ready to go) I hauled the drawers down all of the stairs 2 at a time while my husband and the seller slowly wrestled the chest down to our truck.  The hubs wasn’t super excited about it, but he’s a trooper….and he’s completely used to me doing this!

The wood was so pretty and in great condition, I just couldn’t cover it all up.  I wanted to change the tone of the wood because it was too yellow/orange, so I just lightly sanded the original finish on the drawer fronts and the top with 320 grit sandpaper then applied two coats of General Finishes Java Gel.  While the stain was drying, I brushed two coats of Olive Annie Sloan Chalk Paint onto the body of the chest being careful not to get paint on the parts I wanted to leave wood.  I lightly sanded my paint smooth once it dried.  I just love how smooth Annie Sloan paint becomes after it’s sanded!  To finish up the painted areas, I brushed on Annie Sloan’s Clear and Dark wax and buffed it to a light sheen.

After letting the stain dry for 24 hours, I applied (with brush) General Finishes High Performance Top Coat in Flat Out Flat.  I LOVE this topcoat so much.  It truly is a dead flat finish, so gorgeous  All that was left to do before putting it back together was polishing the hardware.  Now, I know this style of hardware if pretty dated….BUT…..it just seemed to “fit” with this tallboy really well.  Plus, there were 13 pulls, that would’ve cost a small fortune to replace. My friends Christina and Sucheta call this hardware “batman pulls” and both of them detest this style!  Yeah, look at them, they do look like the Batman Symbol.  I used Bar Keeper’s Friend and a wet rag to remove the old tarnish, and they shined up better than brand new.  Love brass so much!  Alright guys, sorry for all the words, here it is…

I was really happy with the way the wood tone complimented the Olive paint. I think it’s worth mentioning this amazing map on the wall.  I staged this piece in my dining room where I have one of my favorite finds ever!  I scored this map from a super sweet, local antiques dealer for an unbelievable price.  It’s dated 1941, and the patina on it is just amazing and the size!….it’s  nearly 5’x7′!!  I’m super lucky to have it:)  Alright guys, I’ve got to get back to the laundry!  Hope your weekend is awesome!