How to transform furniture - a chest of drawers

There have been a few questions about the chest of drawers in my new craft room so I thought I would put a quick tutorial here about how I did it..... sorry I didn't take step by step pics but I will do dot points to assist you in order...

Here is the chest of drawers sans the handles which I have not yet popped on ... this week!:

Begin and Prep
The chest of drawers were pine - stained with a dark stain

1. sand them all over taking care to give the whole surface tooth (a non shiny surface that paint will adhere to)
2. prep coat them with a sealer/primer and a brush - watch for drips and ensure that all surfaces are painted evenly - I used Taubmans 3 in 1 which I love and dries quickly
3. sand between all coats of paints - I will admit here that I am rather slack in this department
4. I take the drawers out and paint them with fronts upward (remove the knobs of course)
5. paint two coats of paint - I used a satin finish aqua enamel - again I used Taubmans as it dries quickly remember to sand between coats (see point three) Please note that I painted the top and bottom drawer fronts in aqua (rain song) and the middle drawer front in (china white 50% strength)
6. dry totally overnight 

Now to distress

1. Purchase a finishing sander - shaped like an iron - they only cost about $50 and are an awesome investment (got mine - a ryobi from Bunnings) If you try to sand by hand you will not get the distressed look you need
2. Sand with 120 sandpaper on the  sander.... go over the edges of the drawers and unit itself where wear would normally happen. Go down to the brown stain
3. Think of heavy use areas, corners and eges - but the trick is not to keep it too even otherwise it looks a bit silly.
4. On some areas go harder and create more 'wear'

With the drawers

1. Cut up a range of coordinating papers or themed papers with your paper trimmer - I used Kaiser Craft (bonjoir range) and websters pages.
2. with modge podge apply the glue to the drawer front  with a soft wide brush and apply it to the paper - a brayer will help keep the bubbles down ... so pull iot over each piece of paper - paint over the paper with modgepodge 
3. your fingers will get loaded with modge podge if you are anything like me - so I keep masking tape handy and take it off my fingers with bits of sticky masking tape
4. Work section by section .... take it slowly and look for colour balance.... I work with the drawers together as they would be on the unit
5. With coordinating stickers and alphas add interest across the work - using the same approach as in step 2
6. I went over all the drawers and ignored the hole for the knob as I was going to buy new ones anyway
7. put a coat of modge podge over all the drawer fronts when they are covered with paper

Finishing

1. I used beeswax to rub into all the furniture and give it a nice mellow finish (paint section in Bunnings)
2. rub the beeswax well into the brown aged areas.
3. use a soft cloth to buff to a nice finish

 Other - you could use polyuthethane varnish if you want to use this in a kids room (I like cabothane by cabots)

Please note I used exactly the same finish on this unit and its matching piano stool - I just didn't do the decoupage effect on the drawers

I do not have shares in Bunnings - they are the most convenient hardware to me..... distance wise

Hope this helps and have fun with the techniques - pelase comment if you would like more info

Cheers
C