Campaign Dresser: Before & After

My coveted campaign dresser is finally done!

Thank the Lord because this thing was wearing me out between all the wrong paint choices and never having enough time to work on it.

Here is the before shot of my campaign dresser I scored off Craigslist:

I figured I'd use a pretty basic tutorial to refinish it. Nothing over the top and fancy.

First step was to remove the brass hardware and give the whole thing a good sanding.

I used a 120 grit paper for the first sanding to get all the scratches and dents smoothed out. After that, I would sand in between each prime & paint layer with  400 grit.

Next step was to prime.

I used Zinsser Fast Prime 2.

I chose the water-base over oil-base because of the easy clean up and low odor.

It went on really well with great coverage.

You can get this primer tinted in a few options so since I was painting the dresser a dark blue, I had the primer tinted to the darkest color possible. 

I used a roller brush for the front of the drawers and top and sides but this little foam brush worked perfect for the small trim on the front.

I only needed to do 1 coat of primer because of the great coverage. But before I painted I made sure to sand lightly with my 400 grit paper to smooth out any imperfections.

I had mentioned earlier that I painted my first layer the wrong color. I was going for more of a dark navy blue but when the paint dried, it had too much of a grey undertone. I should also mention I purchased my paint in a flat finish. I knew I was going to be using a semi-gloss sealer in the end so there was no need to buy paint with any gloss to it. This paint color is called Chanson Bleu.

So I tried again with a new paint color this time. It's called Blue Navy from Pittsburgh Paint.

 I gave the dresser another sanding and then added 2 more layers of the new paint color. (Sanding in between layers of course)

The last step was to apply the polyurethane.

Here's what I used:

I chose a semi-gloss because I didn't want the dresser to have too much shine to it.

And again, water base because of the easy clean up and low odor.

It also has a drying time of only 3 hours so I was able to apply 2 coats in one evening.

And here is my new campaign dresser:

To be honest, I was going for more of a dark navy and it kind of turned into a dark royal blue.

Maybe one day when I'm ambitious enough I will redo it but for now I'm happy with the finished product.

One step closer to getting this room done!

Craigslist Find: Campaign Dresser

Like every other blogger out there, I was waiting to get my hands on a Campaign dresser.

I didn't realize how difficult that would prove to be.

I was constantly checking the local Craigslist (and even the not-so-local Craigslist) but came up with nothing.

With my plans slightly diminished, I decided to let it go with the hopes of maybe stumbling upon one in the future.

So you can imagine when I saw this on Craigslist one day I was beyond excited.

And when the asking price was this: $40.00

I was even MORE excited.

Who finds a campaign dresser for $40??

Uhm, Me. That's who.

I was even more surprised when I went to pick it up how nice it was.

Very clean, Had all the original brass handles and it even came with a glass top.

Here it is in my living room.

Old age took a toll on the brass handles as you can see.

And here is the glass top.

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it but it might be handy with preventing scratches.

I'm currently half way through the refinishing process. I've got as far as sanding and priming and now I just have to paint it. I'm going to use a dark navy blue to really make the brass details stand out.

It's taking a bit longer than expected but hopefully I'll get some after pictures by early next week.

Anyone else have a campaign piece? I'm always looking for a good before & after.