Remember this piece?  My “musty” smelly Chest of drawers? Well she is “musty” and “smelly” no more!!!  She is stunning in her new Eulalie’s Sky dress and I absolutely LOVE her!

Some of you may wonder how I got her smell out, well … I took the advice of so many of you combined with a little experiment of my own and now she is 99% smell free!  (gotta leave a little “old” in there for antiqueiness lol!)

One thing I did do was remove the bottoms of the drawers.   Three of them were missing their bottoms as it was and the other two had moldy bottoms with mouse poop on top!  Ewwwwwweeee!  Not good!

After many weeks of drying her out, (baking soda sprinkled on the wood and boxes left to sit inside) scrubbing her with steel  wool and ridding her of spider eggs and mouse poop … I cut new bottoms for the drawers and papered them with pretty black and white paper which compliments the porcelain black and white handles.  I had to replace those as well as they were just wire wrapped around screws and weren’t original.  Plus two drawers were without hardware so this was easier than trying to match the home made handles… which I actually didn’t mind the look of.  Click HERE to see her before her make over.

I loved the crocodile patina of the old finish…

…and after 2 coats of milk paint in Eulalie’s Sky, it really accented this great patina.  I sanded it smooth until the crocodile patina showed through leaving the milk paint in between.  I gave it a little extra sanding around the key holes and handles where there would be natural wear. I sealed the whole piece with a generous coat of clear wax (Miss Mustard Seed’s Clear Wax) and buffed it to a beautiful smooth shine afterwards.

(Sorry for the out of focus pics… Professional photographer I am not! lol!)

The new porcelain handles are so cute and compliment the drawers inside…

I know it looks like a lot of texture on the drawers but it is actually very smooth.

My favorite parts of this pretty dresser has to be the detailed carved mirror with beveled edges and the wooden castors… such pretty details she has!

The milk paint reacted with the original finish producing a beautiful natural crackle effect naturally on the mirror.

I love this color!  The pictures don’t do her justice… I had a difficult time styling it for the photo shoot as none of my props seemed to match her class… that and I had a hard time with my daughter’s camera…it’s a really good one and I’m not familiar with it :0)

I am happy to say that I took her to my booth today and she was bought within an hour of being there.  I just had her styled nicely when a beautiful young teenager popped her head in and asked how much she cost.  I told her the price and she said she’d be back after she let her dad know.  She came back with her dad and the rest is history!  She also took the matching antique door in the same color that I had refinished.  I told her it would make a fantastic place to pin her girlie stuff to…pics of friends etc.  Add a little magnetic chalkboard paint and it would be perfect.

I’m glad she went to such a good forever home… 100 years old, still beautiful and good as new!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Smiles!

Terry

Linking up to:

anderson + grant: your turn to shine link party

Pink When’s DIY Sunday Showcase

Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday

Inspiration Monday

Stone Gable’s The Scoop

French Country Cottage