Yard Sale Find, Vinyl, and a Little Bit of Paint

Yes, I've been busy, Froggers. On the way to help  my in-laws move, I happened upon a yard sale with *furniture*. You see, I've been really wanting to work on refurbishing furniture for years. However, my schedule and list of other crafts did not allow. Well, I've made the commitment, Peeps! A chest of drawers was calling out to me from the lawn, half encrusted with crap, aka wonderful finds. I screeched my wheels came to a gentle stop and got out to peruse the items. I was excited to see that the chest of drawers was from a non-smoking home and was quite inexpensive. It didn't look like it needed a ton of work, so I bought it. Keep in mind that I was on my way to help move my in-laws and now my trunk was full of my own furniture that needed to be moved. Duh. Oh, well. Fortunately, they had rented a large trailer that required two trips anyway.

You would think after all the projects that I've posted, that I would have gotten a complete before pic, but no, I haven't learned.
Now, I must add that I did see something like this in Blogland, so I can't claim this as an original idea, although I don't know if the Anonymous Blogger (sorry- I'd SO link to you if I could remember who you were) painted the knobs or not. I'll pretend like I'm on the witness stand and say, "I don't recall," which means that I'll take full credit for that part if I want to.

Here are some pics of the drawers:

I'm sorry, but I don't consider this "chippy goodness".

I'm sure this piece of furniture belonged to a girl, since it appeared that it was "heavily decorated" at some point:

Never mind the Goo Gone. I just took my trusty palm sander to these babes. This stuff needed to be vaporized.

Here is my helper who stayed by my side the entire time:

Here's a hint of what I used:

Shock of all shocks! Chalk Paint??? Like, nobody else is using this in Blogland. I do have to admit that I LOVE this stuff. But, 'nuff said. On to the project.

I painted the center front panel of each drawer in Old White and applied some vinyl letters, cut with my trusty Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot program. Gotta love those two together! And, I'm not forgetting to thank Mrs. Barford, by middle school French teacher, whose husband also taught French, heard my test tape at home, and thought I was a native speaker (had to throw that in for bragging purposes).

After applying the vinyl letters, I painted over them with Paris Grey. Then, I lifted the vinyl off of the dried paint, to reveal the loveliness underneath. I painted the body in Old White. A coat of oak Briwax and clear Briwax later, this is what I came up with:

I'm kind of tickled with it.
Fondly, Tami


June 28 postscript- I found the link of the original right here. Yea. I really do like to give credit to the original creative blogger!
And, I'm linking to:
Under the Table and Dreaming
I Heart Naptime
Sisters of the Wild West 
Miss Mustard Seed