Master Bedroom Makeover - The Highboy and Nightstand #2

Here it is! The long-awaited (by all the imaginary readers of this blog in my head) reveal of the high dresser, also known as a "highboy" to all of you furniture nerds like me smarties out there. I actually finished, moved and filled this dresser awhile ago, but I couldn't find my memory card for my camera didn't get around to photographing it until this past weekend. Without further ado, I present Herbert (pronounced the pretentious French way, or "Hay-bear")...

 

 

The Before

Here he is prior to being refinished, in all his mahogany masculinity.

 And the After!

Still masculine, but less "Mountain Man Chic" and more "Metro-Sexual Hunk"!

 

 



Herbert is a man's man who is still secure enough with himself to unashamedly enjoy a nice spa day.
A fitting partner for Antoinette, is he not?

Even Herbert's insides were painted.
Shh, don't tell Antoinette, she would most certainly take issue with this.

The insides of the drawers and cabinets got two coats of Benjamin Moore's "Winter Gates."
And yes, it was totally a leftover from the sample.

I have to be honest with you now.

 

Herbert was not my favorite before or during his refinishing process.

 

HOWEVER, I like him a lot better AFTER it!

 

His size, combined with all of his nooks, crannies, curves and cabinets, gave me a LOT of trouble. Plus, after getting some questionable advice from the salesman at my local hardware store, I used the same color of paint but a different type, one that was supposedly specifically good for painting wood. I did not find that to be true, in fact I found it to be much more "watery", requiring several coats where the regular acrylic required only two. Because so many coats were required, I quickly got fatigued with Herbert and reached the point where I just wanted him done and crossed off my list (never a good place to reach when painting furniture or doing anything). To top it off, I had quite a series of snafus with the silver detail on the cabinet doors involving spray paint. Because that detail is glued on, I had to spray it silver and then paint over the excess, which did NOT work well (because the acrylic wouldn't take to the spray paint) and had to make me temper tantrum be re-done several times.

 

Herbert took a long time to finish and gave me quite a few headaches, but he was a great learning experience and I love him for it. He looks awesome in our slowly-but-surely-getting-there "new" master bedroom. I am definitely happy to have him join his furniture family!

 

Which leads me to the other recent addition, my nightstand! You will recall Jason's Nightstand, my very first painting project ever. Well, here is my new friend, we'll call her "Amelie"...

 

Amelie is not only adorable, she is as sweet as pie and would never give anybody trouble if her life depended on it.

Charles' prettier twin sister.

 

Like Charles, Amelie is painted with Benjamin Moore's Antiguan Sky. However, UNLIKE Charles, Amelie was painted in a high-gloss finish because I ran out of the sample, which only comes in flat because I wanted her to be more girly.  I think she looks amazing, and I am so happy how she turned out! Unlike her father Herbert, she gave me no trouble at all and was done about two days after I sanded her.

 

So, to recap, so far our master bedroom remodel includes:

 

Antoinette

Charles

Herbert

and Amelie.

There is also another new addition to the room, about which I will go into (much) further detail tomorrow, so stay tuned! This one comes with a detailed photo tutorial, so you definitely don't want to miss it (unless you have better things to do, in which case, well ok then).

 

Happy Hump Day,

 

Brooke