Woodworking Family Life Style: YOU ASKED MY OPINION III kristys questions answered

Personally Id love to see this lookbut Ive been told I cant always get my way.

This is the 3rd installment of

*YOU ASKED MY OPINION*

My response to a reader requesting my opinion

on their furniture and/or space.

Hi - Im too!

I love your website and all your stuff - so envious of your skills! Its all totally my style! I have an older dresser
and matching side table in my bedroom that is just old, 80s wood finish. It has some interesting shape to it and nice
hanging (but brass) handles. I would love to refinish these to be black or black/brown to suit our bedroom decor.

I think they could look great painted either black or dark brown and with different knobs at the top, but paint

the handles that are near the bottom of the dresser - I love the shape of them, just not the brass colour.

s maple dresser can be seen here on the right and a nice

example of something similar on the left in brown

I think the night stand needs legs as well.

Great Bun feet can be found at Windsor Plywood.

Do you think darker pieces look better distressed or just solid colour?

Distressed furniture looks old with history.

Solid colored furniture appears new and modern. What is the overall feel you want in your room?

I love the shabby look, but maybe thats better with something white

and white wont look as good against our beige walls.

I firmly believe every piece of furniture has the ability to be

spectacular on its own, that it doesnt need things around it to look

good or match a set or even worry about beige walls. The only trick

is figuring out the right look for each individual piece.

Do you think a dark chocolate brown could still provide that classy look like the white and black?

When done right Dark Chocolate can definetly provide a classy

look, however brown paint is tricky to get right, so usually it would

be stained in a dark walnut rather then painted.

Also - where do you get your awesome, antique-like handles and knobs?

I find my hardware everywhere, from fleamarkets to yardsales,

antique stores, and hardware store, but mostly I find them on old

pieces of furniture. All the above pictured handles are repurposed

from found furniture.

Lee Valley in Coquitlam is a great source for reproductions.

What do you use to paint them?

EXCEL Spray Paint 10 min dry available at Co-op in Langley

and Rustoleum Painters Touch available at Rona

Since Im totally new at this stuff, can you provide details like which paint products and such are good to use?

I get most of my latex paint and primer from Cloverdale paint.I use preformance select paint brushes from Home Depot.I use minwax paste finish wax, and varathanes diamond clearcoat and gel stains.

I painted a dresser once before and it didnt work well. Two years later it still is sticky
on the top and dents and scratches whenever I leave anything on it.

Im going to suggest it wasnt prepped or primed first. Latex paint does take

28 days to cure and the darker the color the more time is needed.

Although Im sure 2 yrs would be more then enough.

Thinking I should redo it completely and paint it white and do that one with a more distressed look since its

has more boring shaped to it. I also think I should change the knobs to be more fancy looking.

Distressing does add shape to a less then curvatious piece. In the

photo of s dresser here on the left you can barely see the

outline of the drawers and can only see the curve on the bottom due to the lighter carpet. Distressing the edges would highlight all the lines it does have.

My bedroom walls are a neutral beige colour and my curtains are chocolate brown and
our recently created (still need to add tufted buttons) headboard is light grey-blue.