How To Flip Furniture: Mid-Century Modern Dresser

Before image of the white painted mid-century modern dresser — before

After image of the now black and wood mid-century modern dresser — before

A step-by-step guide on how I transformed this white, chipped, FREE dresser into a sleek mid-century modern dream. Keep reading to learn how you can achieve the exact same look!

*Upfront clarification moment: This is a furniture flipping blog post — not a restoration. You won’t find restoration instructions in this particular post! Getting a little more creative here.

Making A Plan For This Mid-Century Modern Dresser:

Before photo of the mid-century modern dresser, painted in a white latex paint -- this is a closeup of the dovetail drawers painted white as well

Before photos of the mid-century modern dresser, painted in a white latex paint

When I approach a new piece, I look at what I want to preserve, highlight, and change. This dresser had a lovely mid-century modern shape to it but I had no idea what was waiting for me under the paint. I knew for sure that I wanted to highlight the dovetail drawers, the hardwood drawer fronts if possible, and the wooden legs. Apart from that, I was open to either staining the whole piece if the wood was nice under the paint, and if not, repainting the body.

Prep Steps:

Cleaning is always the first step. You must remove any dirt, dust, grease, oil, wax, etc. from the piece. This way, you’re not pressing that grime deeper into the wood as you sand. I like using TSP for this step. I’ll then wipe it clean with water and allow the piece to dry.
Because this piece was painted, stripping was my next step. I removed all the drawer hardware and used this stripper to remove the white latex paint. I applied it liberally, covered it in plastic wrap, let it sit for 20 minutes, and removed it all with a putty knife. (This took several passes, as there were multiple layers of paint!) Then, using a lint-free cloth, I used warm water with a drop of dish soap in it to neutralize the stripper.
Sanding was my final step. After letting all the water dry, I started off with 60 grit sandpaper on a palm sander to remove the remaining paint off the dresser. I then sanded with 120 grit over everything to prep for paint and stain. Finally, using a slightly damp shop towel, I wiped off all the sanding dust.

*After stripping, I realized the body of the piece was MDF so I’d need to repaint the piece. I also noticed that the dovetail drawers were quite damaged, so I had to pivot from my original plan of just staining everything…but wound up coming up with a creative way to still showcase them!

Painting The Body:

Priming the body of the MCM dresser with Bin Zinsser Shellac-Based primer

Primed body on the MCM dresser, and sanded drawer fronts

I primed the body of this dresser with my ride-or-die primer to ensure maximum adhesion from my paint. I always sand between coats with 220 grit sandpaper for an ultra-smooth surface to paint on.

For the colour, I used the last of my House&Canvas black paint in “Shadow” (they don’t exist anymore!) — but another true deep black paint is Annie Sloan’s Athenian Black. I used my Homeright Paint Sprayer (beginner friendly and doesn’t require an air compressor!) to apply three coats of paint.

*If you have to use a brush to apply your chalk paint, then lightly sand with 220 grift sandpaper in between each coat. Wipe chalk paint dust off with a damp lint-free cloth in between sanding and painting.

Solving The Dovetail Drawer Problem:

Pointing out the damage to the dovetail drawer that I have to repair

Showing the damage to the dovetail drawers that I had to fill with wood filler

After removing all the paint, it was clear that the dovetail drawers were heavily damaged. Big chunks of wood were missing from most of them. Apart from dovetailing brand new sides to the drawers (which was not worth the time, effort, or money for this piece), the fix was to wood fill them. But then the filler didn’t look awesome. So I had the idea of painting the side panels of the drawers to sharpen up and highlight the dovetails, while also covering the heavy repairs.

Painting black into the details of the dovetail drawer sides to cover the wood filler

Drawer side, half painted black, half natural wood, before the tape removal

To jazz it up even further, I decided to paint half the drawer sides, but on a diagonal. To achieve a sharp line, I pressed down my painters’ tape and painted a thin line of clear coat along the edge of the tape to extra seal it off and prevent paint bleed. I then went in with 2 coats of my black chalk paint, top-coated it 3 times (more on that later), and then removed the tape to prep for stain.

Staining The Remaining Wood:

Applying wood conditioner to a solid wood drawer front — applying wood conditioner

Applying stain to the wooden drawer fronts — applying wood conditioner

For all the remaining wood (the drawer fronts, sides, and the legs), I decided to stain them all a caramel-y brown. I applied wood conditioner (a non-negotiable), let that soak in for 15 minutes, wiped off the excess, and then went in with 2 coats of stain. I used Varathane’s Puritan Pine.

A Durable Matte Topcoat:

Applying a matte topcoat with a foam brush to the drawer fronts

Closeup of the dresser surface to show the matte sheen of the topcoat I used on the entire dresser

Using a foam brush, I applied 3 coats of my favourite water-based matte topcoat to the entire dresser. Drawers, body, legs, all of it.

*Pro-Tip: When using a water-based polycrylic to seal dark paint, the topcoat often leaves a subtle hazy white cast to the finish (no matter how “crystal clear” they claim to dry). To avoid this, pour some of your topcoat into a disposable plastic container and mix in a couple of tablespoons of your dark paint. This DIY tinted topcoat eliminates that haze. Be sure to mix thoroughly so there are no streaks of paint in the topcoat, and use as normal. (This only works if both the paint and the topcoat are water-based!)

The Final Mid-Century Modern Dresser

Finished Mid-Century Modern dresser, black body, wooden drawers, black cup pull hardware. Styled with an ornate frame and other home decor and oddities.

Mid-Century Modern Dresser, black body, warm wood drawers, black cup pull hardware, styled with a large ornate frame

The final step was to add back the drawer hardware! I wound up replacing the originals with these matte black cup pulls in both the short and long lengths. They complimented the matte black body SO well, and the shape of them felt very MCM.

I love how this piece turned out and it sold within a week of posting it online (at my asking price)! It was a labour of love, but I am so pleased with how all the little details came together to make it a one-of-a-kind piece. Yet another dresser given a new life instead of winding up in a landfill.