Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Black and White Dresser

One of my loyal blog followers (I love all 4 of you) has asked me to go into more detail on how to create the black and white harlequin dresser. So, here is my best attempt ...

1)PAINT THE DRESSER - The dresser I found was already white. So, I just painted the body of the dresser black and left the drawers white. However....I think there are some really cute options out there. You could do chocolate and blue, white and chocolate, red and white, yellow and cream...so many options!  So, decide what room it is going in and pick two colors. I would suggest the lighter color for the drawers and the darker color for the body of the dresser.
2) DRAW THE LINES - Line up all your drawers on the ground like they will be in the dresser. You want the diamonds to "connect" from one drawer to the next. I know this isn't the best picture, but if you look close you can see the pencil lines. I used this level for my guide. You want something pretty long so it will reach across most of the drawers. Just remember that the "skinner" the ruler, the smaller the diamonds and... the harder it is to paint. I am sure there is a mathmatical way to know where to start your first line, but I just started in the corner:)
3)PAINT THE DIAMONDS- Before I started to paint I put an "x" on all the diamonds that were going to be painted. This may sound silly, but I promise this will make it much easier.
I used craft brushes to paint the diamonds. A smaller one for outlining the diamond and a bigger one for the center.
4)DISTRESS - After everything was dry I distressed the entire piece. I even ran a piece of sand paper over the fronts of the drawers. The white seemed too bright so I rubbed some watered down brown and yellow craft paint over the drawers. If I were to do it again I would put stain over it instead. 
You can see that some of my lines aren't straight, and I could have taken more time painting the diamonds, but overall I really like the way it turned out. I hope some of you give it a try. I can't wait to see what you create!!

4 comments:

  1. I love everything about this blog! The Lord has blessed you with so much creativity! I need to hang out with you more so maybe some will rub off on me. Or maybe I'll just cook you a good meal and bring it over to you so you can work on your projects! ( I saw the pic of the H. Helper on your family blog) : ) You are so fun and I'm so thankful to have you in my life! Hugs--

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  2. OOOHHH, I am so glad you posted how to do this! It is too cute, my sweet little tiny friend! I just can't tell you how much it blesses my heart to see you getting to combine your gifts of writing with your gift of creativity:) I'm lovin' me some scarlet sashes;)

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  3. I'm a follower! I love the dresser and it looks so cute with the lamps. Good job, Lea.

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  4. Lea! I'm so impressed! I love this dresser. Great work. :) I love, love, love this blog.

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