Blog stalking and a dresser re-do

Hey ladies! So if any of you read my post about the color help then you know that I got a fab dresser and was at a loss for what color to paint it. Well after stalking Miss Mustard Seed (check out her amazing blog if you haven't already...she's awesome!) I decided what I was gonna do to my dresser. She's one of the only bloggers that I've seen that does two tone furniture re-do's and she recently re-did a french provincial dresser that looks similar to mine. Well it looked so amazing that i just HAD to copy her and do the same thing. Her philosophy for white painted furniture made SO much sense and totally made me re-think my white pieces. She loves white painted stuff but on a lot of pieces she stains the top a dark stain and the contrast between the white paint and the dark stain makes my heart go pitter patter! It makes so much sense because stain is really resilient and doesn't show wear and tear as fast as white paint does. Well as much as I was adoring the idea of a turquoise dresser (and I'll get up the courage someday) I thought that I would do the two tone look instead and I just happened to have all the stuff to do it!

Now I don't know about the rest of you but when stuff is stained...for me it has to be DARK. I don't like those in between redish oak-y colors...but thats just me! Maybe its because our rental house has redish wood trim around the floor in the whole house and I want to paint it white SO bad but can't. I'm just bitter I guess!

So yesterday I got to work stripping the paint off the top of the dresser. It was so much easier than I expected it to be since the paint was only a couple layers thick and latex. I used a natural stripper that's safe for the environment and water based and it worked amazing! Who needs chemicals when the natural stuff works just as well? I put on a thick coat...let it sit for about 15 mins and then scraped it off with a metal scraper. I put on another thick coat...let it sit and scraped it off too.

Once the whole piece was bare I sanded the top starting at 60 grit and working my way up to 120. Once the top was as smooth as a baby's booty I wiped off all the dust and got to work staining. Now I'm a novice stainer...I'm not good at it because I don't do it very often. Hopefully, with this new found love of two tone furniture pieces I will get lots of practice...(I will soon be refinishing my hubby's dresser and doing the same thing on his...Yay)
Now a tip for those of you that don't stain very often and something that I just learned yesterday...duh...you MUST stir your stain very well before you begin staining. All the color settles to the bottom and you won't get very good color if you don't stir it well. Am I the only one that doesn't stir my stuff very well??? (sheepish shoulder shrug)

Ok so next I got to work applying a thin and even coat of Ebony Minwax liquid stain to the top of the dresser in the direction of the wood grain. I let it sit for about 10 mins and then wiped it off. After it was totally dry I went back over the spots that didn't look even and re applied a little more stain with a rag. I let that sit and then wiped down the whole top gently. I let it sit and cure while I painted the drawers and dresser a creamy white. I applied another coat of white today and let it dry. I then lightly distressed the piece on the edges, etc. I applied about 3 coats of Minwax wipe on poly to protect the whole piece from wear and save all my hard work. I absolutely LOVE  how this dresser turned out. The top didn't stain as evenly as I had hoped but that's ok...I like things a little imperfect! I used knobs in an oil rubbed bronze finish to unify the piece and I am SUPER excited to have this gorgeous dresser gracing my bedroom!

Here's what she looked like before I stained the top (but after I had stripped the paint off...sorry for not taking a proper before pic

And here's what she looks like now....

 Now I swore to myself that I wouldn't take a picture of this dresser until it was properly "staged" but once I finished it (and my son was in bed) I HAD to take a pic to show you all...plus my hubby isn't home to help me get it in the house. Oh and for some reason the picture on top looks like there's a weird discoloration on the top of the dresser but its just how the picture turned out with my sub par photography skills! Hope you guys like it even though I chickened out and its not turquoise! :)

I'm linking up to  
Transformation Thursday on The Shabby Chic Cottage
Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed