Swanky dresser paint-o-rama!
 

I'm posting this in Hepcat because it's important to accessorize one's home, too!

We were on the hunt for a swanky looking retro sideboard for months, and last February, we came across one in an unlikely place, an odd little independent store in Burbank mostly populated with cheaply-made clothes and odd accessories. We'd wandered in because a lovely tiffany-lamp-styled umbrella caught my eye, but tucked in the back was an incredible (and extremely reasonably-priced) antique art deco dresser. You can't even get cardboardy IKEA furniture for that price. We fell in love, and we brought it home. (Sadly, I have no picture of this, some of you have seen it and some more will see it soon at the Indy screening or the reading party.)

Last weekend, we were strolling by the area again, and this little number stopped us in our tracks. We couldn't resist it, and again it was being sold for waaay less than crap furniture costs!



But the colors aren't working with our bedroom. Then again, our bedroom has been feeling kind of bland to me. White walls are becoming oppressive. I love our red bedspread (you can see a corner of it; it's not quite as bright as it seems) and we have a couple awesome black wall fixtures, a sconce and a shelving unit. But I can't figure out what to do about the walls and accents.

I had been thinking about aqua and red as a cool combination. But Tom (who is colorblind) does not like the combination. Red and yellowy gold were our wedding colors, but that doesn't go with the great silver hardware on the dresser. What to do!

I'm going to play with photoshop... see what I can come up with (and make sure Tom really hates the aqua/red.) But so many of you are so creative with a good visual eye, so I figure you might have cool ideas I'm not thinking of. Any thoughts?

Crude paintshop job, but here's my first combination...

And another...

The aqua and red really does work with the style of the piece.

*runs and hides from Tom*

How about just aqua and black? Or if Tom really can't stomach the aqua, how about royal blue and black? Your red bedspread would look great with it, either way.

What a fabulous F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S piece of furniture LSPE.

I vote for aqua.....:)

I like em both (and I'm usually not a fan of yellow).

not a fan of natural wood? I was thinking strip it, re-stain it

Definitely strip and restain instead of paint. You can stain in many colors, so it doesn't have to be a wood tone or black. But the piece is marvelous, and if possible, would look way better stained instead of painted.


Heheh, usually it's the hardware that you replace to make an insignificant piece look snazzy. In this case, the hardware is the keeper. Strip the rest down.

Ehh - I'm not actuallly that fond of stained wood. Tom and I only like really dark stain, and if I'm correct, that only works on particular types of wood. I am looking to bring more color to the party, I think.

Well, echoing iSm, there are good colored stains available (might be Sherwin Williams, I can't remember) but mage color choices.

I agree, the hardware on this is awesome, and I do like the drawer layout. Wish I'd found it!

That's cool. How'd you do that? Do you have a Wacom Pad or something. I want to get one of those.
:)

How about the best of both worlds: stain it AND have colors. There are colored stains that you can get colors besides wood tones.

Aqua. I'd try a different pattern though. How about painting the top and bottom row one color, and the middle row the other?

I like the aqua, but if Tom doesn't, then you could do red & light grey

Oooo... That would be sweet! :snap:

oooh, yeah, alternating rows might look cool, perhaps even better than the neat checkerboard look.


No one will shun you if you go for paint. It's certainly gobs less work, and would end up "brighter" than even colored stain.


I still recommend you spend countless man hours stripping and re-staining it. It's a cool piece worth tons of (your, not my) effort. Heheh!

another option is veneers. I know you said youre not looking to do natural or stains, but there are indeed other options beyond paint

http://www.oakwoodveneer.com/

be sure and check out 'purpleheart'

I say go for LoT colors: blue, blue and blue.

.

Purpleheart gets pretty dark - close to black - after a while.

Can't stop now!

me like

Too busy. Stick with two colors.

Hey would someone playing photoshop please fix the hardware handle on the top, left cabinet? Thanks.


Also, if the O.P. was concerned about this getting confused with fashion if posted in the Hep Cat forum, perhaps "swanky dresser" was not the best title choice.

:p

If your going to go all segmented with it, maybe a Mondiran influence would be the way to go.



However, if you are looking for a 1050's look that aqua and black would be my pick with black and titty pink coming in a close second influenced by this:



Also, maybe try a pattern on the lighter color:

How's this:

well, that explains a few things in our house!;)

It isn't perfect, but it should at least be workable:

I like NA's Mondrian idea.

No, it's a Mondiran idea



(See her post)

Okay, so here are a couple.

My original suggestion:



A combo I came across accidentally while screwing around with the colors: