Yesterday I had the chance to spend the afternoon with my sweet little niece. She is not quite two yet but just amazes me with her humor and knowledge.  Every week she picks something new and silly up.  She also has skills in the kitchen.  Something that she didn’t inherit from me!

However, I like to think that she picked up my fashion sense.  And stellar ability to accessorize any situation.

Over the summer her mom and I re-did a vintage dresser for her room.  The finished piece turned out with just as much personality as the little girl who it now belongs to.

This dresser has a fun back story.  It belonged to my great-grandfather and then my father who gave it to my brother.  This was my brother’s dresser all throughout his childhood.  It is a large sturdy piece which has stood the test of time.  Now it is passed down to yet another generation – the first girl to own it as far as we know.  With that said, it was due for a makeover!

Unfortunately I don’t have a before picture of this one.  Just picture an uninspiring brown, actually almost gray brown boxy dresser.  Eww.  And very tarnished hardware.

The hardware, in fact, was the biggest surprise of all in this makeover.  Once cleaned up, a beautiful rose bronze peeked through.  So pretty!

As for the paint, we mixed up a wash of Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint in Shutter Gray.  We applied three coats of the wash to achieve this coverage.  Each coat dried very quickly so we were able to start one right after another.  This project was a breeze!

Suddenly all of the art deco lines we never noticed were highlighted with this paint treatment.  I like the base of this dresser.  Second to the hardware of course.  So unique!  It’s funny because I have looked at this dresser all my life yet never actually saw those details until now.

We finished it off with clear wax and a little buffing.  Now it is fit for it’s next owner!

Linking to Miss Mustard Seed