Painting a dresser. Colors?

SalveKathleen

 

I bought a thrifted dresser, thinking I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. Now that I have it in the house I feel conflicted. Originally, I was thinking a dark brown paint. But our bed side tables are dark, our chest of drawers is dark and the curtains are dark. I'm worried that another huge piece of dark furniture is just going to be too much. Then I decided maybe a light brown and antique white to match our bedspread.But I'm worried that won't flow with the rest of the furniture. Anyone have ideas? I want to get this done relatively soon but I'm so indecisive. I know that I don't want any bright colors or a "distressed" look.

 

 

 This is the dresser.

 These are the colors in our room. browns, ivory, golds.

 

 

 

 

Thinking something like this maybe? Without the stenciling

 

Thank you!!

Sue-n-Kevin

I've been painting a lot of furniture lately, but that's for my kitchen which I've done in a cottage style, and using distressed techniques.

I'd think you could go with an off white with an eggshell finish (not shiny, not flat). I personally like Behr Swiss Coffee for all the white in my house. If I were doing this, I'd probably buy some shiny gold craft paint at a craft store and do the grooves in the drawers with this after taping off the parts around them. I found some really great brushes with small brush heads at the craft store for tiny painting areas, artist brushes really. It will have a French Provincial look, and you could get gold handles.

That piece of furniture looks like a buffet to me also, could you use it in your dining area for storage?

Good luck.

dancingphalanges

I personally like the look of one piece of furniture mismatched, and I think that the off white would look good with what you've described in your room.  However, you have to consider how it might look if you decided to change your bedding and go with another color scheme.  I recently refinished a dresser (I transformed it into a TV stand for my bedroom and matched it with my other furniture).  If your walls are a light color (my walls are a light blue in my bedroom, and I have dark furniture as well), it might not look bad to have the dresser be dark as well.  Also, if the dresser is a smooth finish, I would sand it a little to rough it up a bit, then apply a good primer before painting. 

mrsB68

It depends on what else you have in the room really. I tend to think a white/off white or a very light gray/beige would work very well. I hesitate to say to paint it brown as it's going to still look old and dated. I would also consider the 'feel' you want in the room and if you're going to replace the handles I would pick those out first so that you can fill any holes from the old ones if needed. Don't worry if it doesn't match the other pieces, it'll add more interest.

Another option, and this really really depends on your wall colors, is to do a purple or blue or something that's a good traditional color but could add a little punch of color without standing out too much. Stay with the more traditional colors though - no aqua, etc. If you already have an accent color in your room consider using that if you can as it would tie the dresser into the room.