Trash to Treasure

This is a project that I completed some time ago, but I wanted to share it here for anyone who hasn't seen it.

I don't have a ton of great pics of the progress, but here are the deets:

My bestie (who just so happens to live downstairs from us) spotted this dresser on the curb down the street. At the time, she knew we were redecorating our master bedroom, and I was looking for a piece to go across from the end of our bed. So she and I schlepped down the street to check it out. It was solid wood (so hard to find these days!) and really didn't have much wrong with it besides the awful, dated drawer fronts. We tried to carry it back but it was so solid it was too heavy for us!

As soon as the BF got back from the gym we had him go pick it up with the car.  I don't remember the exact time of year, but I remember it was coooold. So the dresser sat outside in the shed until the weather warmed up, which gave it a good amount of time to air out.

Once the weather turned nice, I borrowed a belt sander from my parents, and gave the thing a good rubdown, and a coat of primer. The original handles were just screwed on, so those got removed, and I bought 6 unfinished wood handles from www.MyKnobs.com and they worked out great! I did have to putty the holes from the original "pulls" if that's what you want to call them. You can get an idea of how hideous they were in the pic below.

The outside of the dresser got a couple coats of white we had leftover from the bedroom trim, and I picked up three test pots at Home Depot. I picked 3 from the same paint strip, but the light brown actually was a bit more taupe-y than I liked to I mixed some of the medium brown in with it to deepen it a bit, and that worked perfectly.

I wish I had more pictures, but it turned out great. There is one thing I'm still trying to figure out though, I need something to put on the top to protect it from scratches. A couple of thoughts I've had: a burlap runner or a piece of plexiglass cut to fit. Thoughts? Ideas?