Funky Gray and Black

BEFORE

and AFTER

This is one of our most recently completed pieces! Working off a tip from my neighbor,  I picked the dresser up curbside, one of two discarded pieces, from  a home that had recently been put up for sale.  My 13 year old son  Donovan helped me maneuver two dressers into the back of our minivanon the way to his soccer game. It was covered in stickers from the mid 70's, a little boys life and loves collaged on every drawer.  What a cool Mom he must have had to allow this.  The six million dollar man sticker was my fav.  I can still remember how exciting the opening to that show was.  Anyway, it was not so exciting to remove these stickers, but after several hours of sanding and spraying and scraping I prevailed.  Donovan joined in at one point to give me a break too.  I decided to paint the entire piece a neutral gray chalk paint and then the drawers in black.  I am out of black paint or might have done the entire piece black, but now am really liking the result.  I considered stripes on the front drawers but was not happy with how it was turning out. I love spray painting stencils, so after repainting the drawer fronts black again I grabbed a rubber doily like place mat that I purchased for exactly this idea, and a can of cheap gray spray paint.  I haphazardly repeated the place mat stencil on each drawer.  It is not precise and perfect (not my style or expertise for that matter), but rather has a faded, hand- made look.  Plus I knew I would be heavily distressing the dresser to let the original brown stain show through.

I have been listening to Mumford and Sons lately so I think that is where the Indie folk rock feel of this is from. It's done, I did it, and it's different.  I like to think that if Restoration Hardware, and Anthropologie had a love child, this would be it. :)
Linking with Miss Mustard Seed :)   http://missmustardseed.com/2012/10/furniture-feature-friday-link-party-favorites-6/