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Earlier this week I disclosed my addiction to ugly, old, abused furniture.  And it seems like I'm not alone.  Thanks for the back up ladies!   I also disclosed my lack of love for my former TV stand.  Along with my fondness for watching way too much TV, but I digress.

Anyway.... I bought this piece of furniture on a whim (and a whole lot of other pieces) and decided to turn it into a TV stand.

Here's the before....

I like the idea of using a dresser for several reasons.....mostly because of the extra storage and the idea that Charming wouldn't be able to open the doors and throw the contents everywhere.

I could barely wait to get started on this baby.  Thankfully we (not me, sadly....just the boys) had some good naps last week and both babies go to daycare two days a week now to start to get everyone ready for my return to work in March.  (Eek!) And to give me time to do these sorts of projects.

I started by removing all of the hardware.   On this occasion I actually put the parts in a plastic baggie.  Generally I don't remember where I put the hardware so this is a big improvement for me.  Way to go, me,  on keeping the New Year's resolution of being more organized.  Then I gave the whole piece a good cleaning with Murphy's Oil Soap and wiped it down with a clean, damp cloth.

I decided on Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Gray because I'm seriously in love with this color.  Also, I wasn't really into sanding, priming, and all of the blah blah blah associated with regular paint.  But I really, really do LOVE Paris Gray.

I only needed two coats.  This is yet another reason that I'm becoming a big time fan of ASCP.  And, yes, that's a garbage bag doing double duty as a drop cloth.  I may be more organized these days but I'm still too lazy to go dig the drop cloths out of the storage area under the stairs.  I thinned the second coat a bit with about a tablespoon of water added to the can.  I love how this paint goes on and I'm learning not to over brush but to just let the paint settle in and do its thing.  (Hmmm....must try this with the rest of my life.)

Now here's the part that I'm none too pleased about....... I've used the AS wax before but only on white pieces so I probably didn't notice the imperfections.  This time the wax went on streaky and I could not figure out how to fix it.  Many web searches later, a glass of wine (for me), some mineral spirits (for the dresser), and then a third coat of paint, some more wine (for me), some light sanding and a final coat of wax, some more wine (for me), and it looks a lot better.  Basically, I've been adding waaaaayyyy too much wax.  Apparently, a dollop less than the size of a quarter should cover the whole piece.  My bad.  Think I'll be investing in the special wax brush, too, for future endeavors.

I painted the handles in AS Pure White, waxed them (lightly), and re-attached them.

And here's the finished piece.  Seriously. In. Love.

I distressed the edges just a little bit. Distressing makes me....well,.... distressed.  I feel like I've done all this hard work only to deliberately "wreck" it.  I'm slow to warm up to the distressing thing.

And just for fun.... a before and after shot.

I love how this dresser looks in the living room and how much it can hold.  I'm thinking of taking the two top drawers out to put the DVD player and receiver inside so they're not sitting out on top.  But remember when I said, Charming can't open the drawers and toss stuff out?  So wrong about that....the white handles seem to attract his attention even more than the old cabinet did.  We'll be working on impulse control and better supervision on the home front this week.

Linking up to my favorite parties.  

Update:  Sharing with Thrifty Decor Chick, too as my favorite thing!