Color Splash Furniture Makeover

This would have gone a little differently without the help of my 4-year-old, but she wanted to help and I didn’t want to disappoint her. It was fun to work together, and at least she’s proud of her work. So, here’s how I made over her dresser…with a few pointers on how I’d planned on doing it by myself.

When we first moved into our current house, I did a quick paint job for my old dresser that had been revamped MANY times already. I didn’t figure a dark brown would be very kid-approved, so I painted the whole dresser a plain white for the time being and added cute knobs. But I didn’t even do 2 coats, and clearly it needed something new.

Fast-forward to now, and it was time for something more fun. Ruby wanted a “color splash” and, boy, did we find a way to make that happen. 😜

Step 1: Prep and base coat. Our dresser had a glossy white paint that first needed to be cleaned off (think years of sticker gunk and…slime, possibly?). Taking the dresser into my garage, I next removed the drawers and sanded the main body of the dresser. I used my little handheld sander, but you could just use a strip of sandpaper. I went over the whole dresser, sanding over the glossy paint to roughen it up a bit so that new paint would adhere better to the surface.

If your furniture has fresh, never-painted wood, you’re probably fine to just paint a base coat of whatever color you want.

If your wood is stained, you definitely want to sand that down before painting a base coat. If your paint is peeling, you definitely want that off too. There are a lot of videos out there about stripping paint, but basically, just get your wood to the point where new paint will adhere.

Because the pouring paint won’t cover every part of the dresser, you want to give the dresser a base coat of paint that the pouring paints will go over. I left most of our dresser white. For the front pieces that would be exposed around the drawers, however, I used a purple spray paint and quickly did a base coat of that for the front. I didn’t worry about it getting on the top, sides, or bottom because I figured that might look kinda cool with the pouring paint going over these places anyway.

Whatever you use for this base coat, it doesn’t have to be perfectly flawless, since the “color splash” will cover a lot.

Step 2: Remove hardware. I had an interesting situation where I’d had to use washers to make the drawers thick enough for screws to tighten on the knobs. I’d apparently put on these washers when the white paint had been a little wet, because most of they would NOT come off. So, I decided I’d simply paint over the washers to help hide them anyway.

You can probably just remove whatever knobs or pulls are on your drawers and set them aside for later use.

Step 3: Make a plan and set up. I planned to do one drawer at a time simply because that’s what I had room to do. You could try all at once if you have a bigger space, but I liked taking my time too. Just be sure that you put something (I used cardboard) under where you’re working, because the paint will drip. Each drawer should stand on their backside, with the drawer front facing up. Also be sure they are fairly level so the paint will flow evenly.

I kept all of the drawers ready nearby and carried them over one-at-a-time to my piece of cardboard where I was working. I also made sure I had space to set them to dry once each was done – I used my kitchen island for this, since I’d be able to easily wipe off any paint that dripped while drying.

As for the pouring paints, I/we picked the colors we wanted and set these out so they were ready. We used neon yellow, purple, hot pink, and light pink from my box set of pouring paints. (Ruby picked her own, completely different colors for the sides of the dresser that she was painting…yay.) I also kept the Floetrol bottle open and ready next to my pouring paints as well. And, I ran an extension cord for my blow dryer so I’d have room to maneuver. Lastly, I kept a few spare gloves ready if I needed them – though I ended up only using one, and you don’t necessarily have to use a glove, because the paint washes off easily.

It really helped to have all of this ready first so I wasn’t making a mess as I moved things around, and it helped me be able to work more quickly.

Side note: I set up so that I could do the drawers first. However, you could start on the main part of the dresser rather than the drawers…which would have been my plan if I’d had my way. I would start with the top, and once that was dry, then I would turn the dresser on its side and do one side, let that dry, and then turn it over and do the other side. This process would take quite a while because you’d need to let each side dry before moving to the next, but at least I could’ve started the process and given the drying time a head start before starting on the drawers. It is probably easier to practice and get the hang of pouring paints on smaller drawer fronts, but you could tackle the main dresser first if you’re confident!

Step 4: Pour the paints! It is absolutely necessary to use Floetrol for this project, or else the paints won’t flow like they should. I had a leftover bottle that wasn’t even half-full, so it doesn’t take a lot. Also, it’s important to use the appropriate kind of pouring paints for the colors, because regular acrylic paints don’t flow as well. You could mix acrylic paints with Floetrol, but buying the right kind in the first place seemed easier. 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, start by pouring a little bit of Floetrol on each drawer front and then wiping it around so that it covers the whole surface. You also want the Floetrol going over the edges slightly, as this will help the colors flow over the sides instead of building up at the edges.

Once the Floetrol was on (and keep in mind that this will basically disappear, so don’t count on it for color coverage), I took each paint color and squeezed out lines, drips, and swirls over the drawer fronts. It doesn’t have to look pretty! The trick is really to just get enough colored paint on so that you’ll be able to blow it around and cover the space you want – you get a feel for this as you go.

With the Floetrol and pouring paints on, I took my blow dryer and turned it on high. (Yours might work better at a different setting, so practice a few times to get the feel for what you need.) Holding my blow dryer pretty close to the paint, I blew it around and moved in different directions until I got the look I wanted. This is the fun part!

Once all your color is blown around and no longer shows lines or dripped circles, you can stop. Be careful not to overdo it, or your colors will run together too much and get all muddied.

If you make a mistake and don’t like it, you can wipe it off quickly and start over – that’s another nice thing about the Floetrol. Or, if you don’t like a part of the painting, you can add more colors and blow that around to fill in or go over that part.

Step 5: Dry. After I was done with each drawer, I carefully went around the undersides and wiped off the dripping, excess paint with my finger. This helped get rid of the majority of the dripping right away so that I could move them to dry on my counter. I lifted each drawer and kept the top level, making sure they didn’t touch each other in case the drying paint stuck.

As I finished more and more drawers, I paused every now and then to wipe the undersides if I saw drips. After a while I stopped seeing drips altogether, so I just left them alone to dry.

I let the drawers dry overnight to be sure they were entirely dry before putting the dresser back together.

Side note: Now is when I poured paint for the top of the dresser. I used the exact same process as I’d used for the drawer fronts, only this was a bigger space. Ruby liked the drips over the sides of the dresser (which she’d painted herself), so I sucked it up and left them be. As I explained above, I would have done the sides of the dresser the same way too. This would have required more time as each side dried before turning the dresser for the next side, but the process would have been the same, repeating the steps above.

Optional step: Apply a clear coat. You could go over the dried paint with a spray-on, clear gloss if you want a protective finish. I opted not to bother, since I’m hoping someday to talk her into letting me do the sides. 😉 But, it would help to protect the paint and also to give the dresser a nicer finish.

Step 6: Return hardware. I used the same knobs I’d used before, but you could always change it up if you like.

After putting the drawers back in place, the dresser was finished! This certainly is a fun way to add some color to a bedroom, and it completely changed the look of the boring white, banged up dresser. My daughter also really likes that she can switch which drawers go where, changing the look even more if it gets too “boring” in this current configuration…which I don’t see as a likely issue, but what do I know? 😆

---

DIY Must-Have Lists