Dresser Found in the My Dad's Old Barn

 I had a somewhat of an unusual childhood.  I grew up in Northern California on a 600 acre horse ranch that had no electricity.  It was a fun and interesting way to grow up and sometime I will post about it I suppose    Last time I was "home" visiting my Dad I was poking through the 175 year old barn and found a great old dresser.
The Ranch with the Barn:

Ranch surrounded by Timber Land

 My Dad brought the dresser to Thanksgiving this year -we celebrate at my 96 year old Grandmother's house ( she is Amazing-lives on her own and still drives!).  
Here is the dresser Before:

The dresser is old and when I found it in the barn it had an old mouse nest in one of the drawers. Not my favorite thing that is for sure! My Dad cleaned it out before he brought it to me and then I washed it and even bleached all the inside of the drawers.  Since the dresser was old and had flaking paint I bought a Lead Paint test kit to test for lead  before I got to sanding.  I even bought the face and  eye protection kit.  After testing the paint I got to sanding.  

I sanded the entire dresser down, but not perfectly smooth since I like character and the rough surface would give it this. 

Before sanding

After the sanding was done, I mixed up a light aqua color and made my own chalk paint.  I painted the dresser and then hand painted a design in white on the drawer fronts.  To make the color have age and more character I used hemp oil/dark wax. 
Here it is painted on the dresser with my waxing brush:

I rub the wax/oil in and wipe off any excess.

I sealed the top with the same wax and hemp oil mixture. 

Hand-painted detail-the bottom part was there, but not on the top drawer

You can see the imperfections from the old paint and I love the texture

The legs have wooden casters

This dresser went from a super grungy mouse house to a Beauty! 

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