CUSTOM METALLICA DRESSER: FURNITURE FLIP

NON-MINI: It sounds tacky, I know – but just hear me out.

We found a decent-looking dresser on FB marketplace for $50 and decided to refinish it. If you look up “P.I.T.A.” in the dictionary, you will see an actual picture of this particular dresser. I initially tried to get it to look like a normal piece of furniture, however: It had a mind of its own, which didn’t approve of my makeover.

Straight out of the gate – no matter what I did, it DID NOT want to hold onto any paint. Sanding did nothing, priming did nothing, and it laughed in the face of KILZ. It started “bleeding”, acting like a victim, like I was somehow “hurting it”. It was a drama dresser. I learned way after the fact that certain wood stains produce this effect and will bleed through the new paint if not properly primed and covered with a product like Zinsser Bins, KILZ, or shellac. See: “The More You Know”… 🌈

I had almost completely given up and put it on the tree lawn for trash day but after months of it sitting in the garage and sporadically working on it, we found out we were moving to a place without an outdoor work area. This meant I had to light a fire under my own rear end to find a solution to this thing that now had the colors and patterns of the artwork on a pre-school practice easel. I had some decisions to make, and fast.

What to do, what to do? I began scouring YouTube, Etsy, and Pinterest for ideas. They gave me some ideas for stencils but this piece wasn’t fit for that kind of sophistication. No, no: This was a belligerent beast. It was time for a fresh, new plan.

Seeing as our son wasn’t too keen on moving, I decided to give him an incentive so he’d look forward to decorating his new room. His two favorite colors are red and black which meant the dresser had a date with CitriStrip. This was a paradox of sorts because I didn’t understand how if it didn’t want to hold paint in the first place, why wouldn’t it just strip off easily? NOPE. I found that out the hard way. It took both my husband and me days to strip and then clean the dresser with mineral spirits and steel wool followed by sanding.

A nightmare in every nook and cranny.

OH! And by the way… Apparently, bees are attracted to the chemicals in these products. Dodging and working around them were good times (NOT). So much so, that we had to invest in a garage door screen that kept most of the pesky daytime bugs out.

I applied a few coats of red spray paint for the drawers and black spray paint for the top and sides.

Since our son had recently become an old-school Metallica fan, I thought it’d be great to use waterslide decals to decorate and replicate the band’s original album covers. I found all of the graphics I could courtesy of Google and used an ink-jet printer to print them on the decal paper (I do not own any rights to the photos and they are for personal use only) (Lars, please don’t sue me. It’s for my kid).

I used small clothespin clips to fasten them on old shower curtains held up with old boom stands.

The next steps were as follows:

Spray with a matte clear coat to prime
Spray with matte white spray paint to make any light areas stand out (the decals won’t show white on their own)
Spray a second time with a matte clear coat to seal

Each coat had to dry before moving forward, and it didn’t take long at all. Of course, dry time will depend on air temperature, humidity, and the general environment you’re in. The next step was cutting out all of the photos to the size I wanted them from the decal paper. You probably could do this prior, but I wanted to make sure I coated everything evenly as well as have options if I changed my mind on sizes later.

I laid out the order they’d go in, and soaked each page according to the directions. From there it’s just a matter of lining everything up correctly, working from the center outwards, and ensuring no bubbles remain under each page. There are some great waterslide decal tutorials on YouTube outlining the process. I would highly suggest practicing on a similar material if you’re new. It takes a few tries to get used to how to most effectively handle the decal sheets.

Unfortunately, I still ended up with bubbles and cracking. I know it’s partially due to the condition of the wood underneath from everything it had been through. The other portion was my inexperience. Either way, I told him it made it look “vintage” and cool. 😀😉

The drawers were looking a bit plain so I decided to cut out the band’s faces and logo from black vinyl using the Cricut maker and center these in the middle of the drawers. The handles were cleaned and sprayed with black paint.

After it was dry, I sprayed the entire dresser with three coats of Rustoleum 2X clear and finished it just in time to surprise him for his birthday before the big move. He loved it and I hope he’s happy with it for years to come!

I learned a lot, especially to think outside the box. Customizing gifts for people is very rewarding, sincere, and heartfelt. I encourage you all to try something new and don’t hesitate to share your creations. I’d love to see them!

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