Bleached Blue Dresser

This particular manufacturer must have been pretty popular around here back in the day, because these french provincial dressers surface every week or two and I always paint them white...

Until this one.

I had been painting white furniture all the little long day, when my last piece on the docket suddenly told me it needed to be blue. It beckoned to be blue. It insisted. So after applying 2 coats of white paint I listened and went for my can of robin's egg blue.

About 20 minutes later my heart began racing as I took a good hard look at what I had done. It felt wrong. Completely and utterly wrong. So I patiently let it dry. Slept on it, and took another look in the morning. Nope, still wrong! Instead of admitting defeat I broke out my power sander and went to work. I wore that blue paint down to it's last layers, hoping a mermaid/blue lagoon look just might work. With the white coming through it started to feel good. But the blue and white were still feeling a little crazy... Sean and my Sister used the words "tie dye" to describe the finish. A bad 70's acid trip was far from my intended outcome.

On the brink of defeat I pulled out the last trick up my sleeve, hoping to prove my instinct of blue wasn't a failure. So I took my trusted and beloved white paint, watered it down like crazy and sprayed the whole dresser again. I walked away knowing that if it couldn't be saved, I had done my best.

When I came back about 2 hours later I was stunned. I was in love. I was completely and fully pleased with the "bleached" blue finish that resulted. It is subtle, but still blue. It is interesting and unexpected. And I knew immediately that it needed some mercury glass knobs. Mottled and splotchy just like the paint, they complimented it well.

To be honest, it was my first experience with painting furniture that I actually doubted my instincts for just a fraction of a moment.

But those who know me best know that I don't back down from a challenge, and I rarely concede defeat (not always the best trait... but with furniture it seems to be a blessing!)

You were a worthy opponent little blue dresser.

You might have won the battle

But I am glad I won the war!