Country Gray and Old White Two-Toned, Vintage Dresser

I finally came across my first dresser (they are hard to find) at a yard sale!  The man selling it said it is from the 1930's.  Besides missing most of its hardware it was in pretty good condition.  

I should know better by now, but I started painting before I took a picture.  At least I caught my mistake before I got too far along.

I love the legs on this beauty and the carved wood detailing.  I wanted to use more of the glass knobs I used here, so I patched the indentations from the previous drawer pulls with wood filler.

The edges of some of drawers were missing small pieces of veneer, so I just patched the edges with wood filler and sanded them flat before painting.

When I was getting ready to paint the top, I noticed a couple of small bubbles in the veneer on top.  I have never dealt with veneer before and I was kind of nervous, especially since I had already spent the day painting the drawers and they looked so good.  I searched the internet and found information on how to repair veneer.  

I started by slicing length wise through the bubble with my craft knife.  Then I cut a thin strip out, so there would be no overlap and it would lay flat.  I first tried using contact cement, but it just did not flatten enough.  

I was starting to get frustrated, but I could not give up on this dresser.  I turned to Gorilla Glue super glue and it solved the problem.  I used a knife blade to apply the glue under small sections of the veneer and then applied pressure for thirty seconds until it dried before moving on to the next section.  I did this until the whole bubble was glued flat.

Then, I filled in the small gap with wood filler and sanded it smooth before painting.

This is how she turned out:

I painted the whole thing with Country Gray Chalk Paint first.  By the way, I adore this color!  it is so subtle and complex at the same time.  It is hard to figure out what color it is exactly and it changes depending on the lighting.  I got so many compliments on it at Loot this weekend.  I do not think it is one of the most popular Chalk Paint colors, but it is my favorite.  In fact, I need to order more already!  

I used a teeny tiny paint brush to paint Old White Chalk Paint inside the grooves on all the drawers and the side of the dresser.  I also painted the wooden applique in the center of the top drawer with Old White.  I lightly distressed the whole dresser, waxed the surface, and then put on the glass knobs.

I had a little trouble while painting the top of the dresser.  Spots kept showing through until I painted about four or five coats of paint.  At least it is pretty easy to paint the flat surface of a dresser.

This was not one of my easiest projects between the veneer problems and the bleed through, but it was worth it in the end.  I love everything about this dresser now!  

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