Pressboard Dresser

One of my neighbors stopped by when I was painting furniture in my garage.  He said he had an old dresser to offer to me.  He did mention it was pressboard and I tried to politely decline, but he really wanted to give it to me.

He and his son walked it over a few days later.  I was actually surprised it was in French Provincial style. The hardware was really nice!  Upon closer inspection though, the top and one side had a lot of the telltale pressboard bubbling.  

I didn't want to get rid of the dresser because it was structurally in good condition (it also weighed a ton), but I was stumped as to how to hide the bubbling.  I decided to try to distract the eye from the bubbling with some kind of painting technique.

First I painted it with two coats of SW paint in their base white mixed into homemade chalk paint.  I then took a small container and poured in a little bit of SW Seaworthy and added a lot of water to it (about a 3 to 1 ratio of water to paint).  

I then used a 4" wide chip brush to add the watered down paint across one of the drawers.  I wiped left to right, then up and down, then left and right again.  Not sure if that was necessary, but I liked the result and repeated it on all drawers and the body of the dresser.

Here's how it came out.

I think it kind of looks like a denim treatment--or maybe linen?  Or is more like a white washed look?  Either way I really like how it came out. I also switched out the hardware for ones I spray painted a bright white.  

There was an extra handle in the middle of the top drawer and since I didn't know I was going to change the hardware before I started painting, I didn't fill the holes.  I used little wood appliques I got from Michaels. I painted them white and glued them on with Aleene's Tacky glue to cover the holes.  

I distressed the edges and finished it with Minwax Finishing Paste.  You can still see the bubbling (although not in the photos I took), but it didn't look too bad--it gave a little character.
  

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