As I teased here, I’ve been working on painting.  I’m not allowed to paint walls (yet!) because I haven’t demonstrated the painting prowess my perfectionist mathlete is searching for so I am starting small…with a chest of drawers. 

I bought this baby on craigslist for $50.  It’s solid wood and was once a changing table.  The top actually folds down and out to magically transform into a changing table (definitely not sturdy enough my chunky monk but maybe a smaller kiddo).  My first thing (after removing its drawers obviously) was to remove that folding shelf.  I’m not using it a changing table and didn’t really feel I would use the folding shelf at all.  Out came the screwdriver (and mathlete):

Once we removed all the screws, the shelf just popped right off the top and it was time to fill in the little holes left by the screws.

Meet Mr. Putty…hole filler extradonaire

You just press this stuff down into the holes and then scrape off the extra. I also wiped around the holes with a shop rag because I didn’t feel like the scraper got enough of the extra filler off of the non-hole parts.

With the holes all filled, it was time to start priming.  I removed all of the hardware from the drawers and primed those first with my Kilz No-Voc primer.  For the drawers, I did two coats with a regular sized foam brush (20 for $1 this week at Michaels!).

I had originally planned to sand everything but, when I was painting sample colors on it, I discovered that it didn’t really need sanding at all.  It didn’t have a shiny finish or much of a sealant on it to start with.  The primer went on very easily and smoothly.  Once the drawers were done, I pulled out my foam roller and took it to the chest.

Those pictures are one coat of primer.  It was getting late and my bed was definitely calling so I stopped my painting project there.  It is about to get hot outside again though and I will want my garage back for my car so I expect to finish this whole painting thing up fast!