Kelly Green Campaign Dresser

Campaign dressers are expensive.  You can purchase a half broken version of these suckers starting in the high $300.00's.  Not sure about you, but we would rather have groceries... maybe some deodorant and toothpaste too.  So, when I saw TWO of these sad little campaign dressers hidden in dust bunnies at the local Savers, needless to say I was pretty damn stoked.  I was so stoked (do people have something against this word?) about these dressers that they sat in our garage for nearly a year.  Yep.

By the time Fall rolled around, and the ruthless Minnesota snow was going to show it's fugly face in the next couple of weeks, I decided to get cracking on the dressers while I still had the chance.  (Insert three weeks of rummaging through Google images and Pinterest)

Here are a couple of images I fell in love with.  Almost to the point of marriage. Almost.  Then again I'm fairly certain they have laws against marrying inanimate objects--

http://thenowstylebook.com/on-the-campaign-trail/

http://forchicsake.com/diy-campaign-chest/

Ready to see the most fairest campaign dresser of all?  Here she blows:

Isn't she a beaut?  The laminate really makes it, eh?

The first and most obvious step was getting this gorgeous dresser cleaned from top to bottom killing the damn spiders.  I kid you not I pulled a drawer out and two ran up my arm while the other six waited in the corners to be obliterated with a Swifter Duster, until the screaming, thrashing, and running around the room shaking my arm wildly stopped that is.

Spiders were gone, dresser was scrubbed down with mild soap and water, and composure set in.  I was finally  ready to tackle this immense project.  Now, as a word of caution when working with any furniture item adorned with a veneer sticker-- before you even bring that piece home, or even give it a second thought for that matter, I would highly consider walking away, unless the piece is just too awesome or your vision is just too strong.  I honestly don't know if I would rather peel off veneer or have my knees blown off.  If you want to go ahead with the piece, use a metal spatula/butter knife type tool to really get in there.  Your finger nails will thank you.  If there is leftover residue, Goof Off Aerosol Spray works pretty well, but the downside is it smells bad.  Real bad.   Goo Gone is a solid runner up.  It has more of a syrup-like consistency that smells like oranges.  It can be a little harder to work with- but it's your nose!

(five painful hours later...)

THE FIRST CAMPAIGN DRESSER IS CLEAR FROM ALL VENEER!  Praise Jesus!  Hallelujah!  Then I remembered I had one more left.  All I could do was flip birds at the eye soar sitting in my driveway.  Because of my hostile animosity against the dresser, I managed to walk away from about six hours of additional agonizing scraping and peeling with three veneer paper cuts.  I could be all dramatic and say I almost bled out, but that would be slander.  I could tell you, however, that I painted my nails that evening.  Nail polish remover in open wounds is very distasteful.  Not a fan at all.  Dresser, you won the battle, but I really hope to win the war.

It was now time to move onto painting.  I am not going to lie, I was more or less done with the dressers.  I just wanted to slap some paint on it and be done.  So, I really think I jumped the gun with colors.  I do love a Kelly Green, but when it doesn't go with a single thing in your house, you have some issues.  More to come on reviving the color a bit in the future.

I checked out Lowes after hearing they carry the latest and greatest Valspar Pantone Universe colors.  I feel that using Pantones is a great way to cheat with color.  Those professional colorists do all of the work for you.  All you have to do is pick out the color you like.



I couldn't stop thinking about the first image from above.  I liked the green with gold accents color combo.  Without giving it a second thought I purchased the Green Flash color in a high gloss finish with primer to give the pieces a little luster.



A tip with painting larger, flat surfaces on furniture:  It is good to use a small foam roller to even out the surfaces.  Also, be patient.  Make sure to put one coat on at a time with complete drying in between.  Don't be like me by being the most impatient person in the world for this kind of stuff.  Because only then you will end up with drips.  You don't want those drips.  It adds time to your project by having to buff them out, and frankly, it just doesn't look as stream-lined.  It may be a painful process now, but you might thank me later.

I gave the hardware a good clean with mild soap and water.  The hardware was solid, but gave the appearance of being in really bad shape.  I thought I would try every brand of Tarn-X to try and preserve the metal by making it shine through on it's own.  After three various brands of chemicals that did various things to metal, the filth wasn't budging, and my determination was faltering.  The next best thing was to grab the gold spray paint.

I don't know what it is about gold, but Shane has a hard time with it.  He thinks it ages everything it touches.  I wanted to shoot for a happy-medium and find a gold color that was less bright, a little more muted, and carefree looking.  I remembered I had some Antique Gold Rub N' Buff from a previous project sitting all alone in the basement.  The color is still pretty gold, but almost has a rosy tint to it.  It's a compromise, right?  I got to buffing out the hardware.  It was pretty, but not necessarily the color I was looking for.  No worries, revisions to come.  I took shortcuts- AGAIN- so best advice I could give on using a buff is to get gloves.  Doesn't matter what kind, just wear them, unless you want gold fingers for days that is.

(Antique Gold Buff N' Rub third one from the left)

The dressers were finally assembled.  I let them soak up some additional rays for the rest of the day.  It wouldn't be much time now that we won't see the sun for six months...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBXGxgreM1k

The finished product (for now):

I'm out.