An Old Chest Gets Cleaned Up and Dressed Up

#BrightIdeas

Emily from EmilyAClark.com loves finding things in thrift stores and making them her own. See how she turns an old, lackluster chest into a vibrant addition for her home.

Emily discovered an old chest from a thrift store that she knew had potential to fit in her home décor. However, it was in need of a little touching up and a lot of personality. While she loved the lines of the piece, the original color left plenty to be desired.

She decided to give it life by painting it a vibrant green - inspired by the leaves of a plant she already had on her mantel. She landed on Caper Berry from the Martha Stewart Living™ line at The Home Depot (MSL109). It's the perfect shade of "spring green" - playful, but still deep enough to feel sophisticated.

Once she decided on a color, she headed to The Home Depot to pick up her paint and all of the supplies she needed for the project - including a few important cleaning items.
With quite a few painting projects under her belt, she's found a few go-to items work for her every time: an angled brush, Kilz® primer, Glidden® semi-gloss paint and Mr. Clean for pre-painting wipe-downs.

Emily knows that the most necessary part of any furniture makeover project is cleaning up every crevice first. She thoroughly wiped down the dresser with durable Bounty paper towels and Mr. Clean with Febreze®. Older furniture may come with charm, but not necessarily the best odors. She was happy to find that using Mr. Clean made it smell like fresh laundry.

Since the top of the dresser and the drawers had a glossier finish, she started by applying Kilz adhesion primer. She was able to skip any sanding by doing this first. Primer makes the paint adhere easily to slick surfaces.

When it was time to paint, she used her angled brush for the first coat, especially for the details on the drawer fronts. Then, she rolled the second coat for a smoother finish.

Thanks to advice she got from the paint desk at The Home Depot, she opted for a semi-gloss finish. She loved how the fresh color brought a new and modern feel to an old piece of furniture.

The green paired up beautifully with her favorite blue and white accessories. The original brass hardware just needed to be cleaned and polished, adding a nice shine to the bright green.

The insides of the drawers also needed some freshening up so Emily gave them a quick coat using charcoal gray paint she already had on hand. She loves painting the inside of drawers a different color - it's like getting a little surprise each time she opens them up.

The final touch was giving the drawers a shot of Febreze® (she likes Linen & Sky so that the dresser looks and smells like spring - no matter the time of year.)