Dresser Project!

So for the 5 of you who actually read my blog and follow along, you know I've been refinishing a dresser.  To refresh your memory, here's the beauty when I bought it.

She was a little rough around the edges.  So I cleaned her, stripped the paint, and started the painting.  I couldn't decide what I wanted to do, so of course I turned to my wisest council...Pinterest.

These were the two options I narrowed it down to.  Both are General Finishes Persian Blue milk paint, but the top one has a java gel stain on the top surface.  The bottom is glazed in Van Dyke Brown.  I couldn't decide which one I liked the best so then I turned to my Facebook friends.  And that helped exactly zero.  Everyone thought differently.  My uncle told me if I painted it two different colors I'd be "ruining it".  But my uncle isn't known for his decorating sense so...I didn't put a lot of stock in what he said.
After much deliberation, I decided on....the stained top with a glazed base.  Why?  Because I liked the look and wanted to try it.  No other reason than that.

Starting the process by staining the top.  

There's a little nick in the wood on the top, but I decided not to fix it because I think it gives the piece character.
She's an old dresser, so she's going to have some stories to tell.

Starting to paint.  Isn't it beautiful?  And yes those are random cans I'm using to prop it up off the floor.
I'm cheap crafty like that.

I love the difference in color.

So that was the painting portion.  I liked it, but I wanted to glaze it. When using glaze it's a tricky thing.  Basically you paint it all on and then wipe it off.  I've tried wiping it off with both paper towels (the dry method) and baby wipes (the wet method).  The baby wipes are a lot easier to use, but you end up wiping almost all of it off.  Which means you may end up glazing for a second time just to get the look you want.

Here's the glaze before wiping it off

After wiping it off.  The glaze sticks to any imperfections in the wood to give it a distressed look.
I ended up glazing twice because I wanted a little more to stick.

You can see the glaze in the grooves of the drawers.  

So then after getting the glaze the way I liked it, time to seal it.  I used a General Finishes Top Coat in flat finish.  Love that stuff.

And here's the finished look:

I lined the drawers because the wood was in rough shape even after scrubbing it

Here's a side-by-side look: