Dresser re-vamp

Have you been on pinterest? People aren't kidding when they say it's addictive. But because of my awesome sister-in-law Jandel, I actually did one of the projects I'd seen (in various forms) on pinterest!
 See, Jandel told me on a Friday that Ace was having this amazing "Free quart of paint to the first 50 customers" deal the next day, in August. No purchase required! I mentioned it to Sam and he was like "you should get a nice turquoise color for the dresser." So I got online and got inspired:

Ooo! Ahh! Ooo la la! Jk, furniture rarely makes my heart sing. But It can make me smile sometimes when it gives me ideas, and these ones did.
(Found them here, here and here)
 So I marched right into Ace, chose my paint color and they mixed and gave it to me for free! (Then decided it was a bad color, drove back and they switched it!) Ace is now, officially, the bomb. 
Before pic (or as close as I can get): In truth, this pic is 2 1/2 years old, but because the first 3 days we worked on the dresser (over at my parents, since they have a garage) I forgot the camera, this has to do.
This is my dresser from as long as I can remember. My parents let us have it right after we got married. 

Can you kind of tell the color? It's kind of a cream, but it has some serious pink in there. Poor Sam was ready for a change, as was I. 

So what I used for my project: 

1 dresser: already had it;

 

 About 4/5ths of a quart of paint from Ace Hardware: free; 

One quart of Zinsser cover stain primer: 8.88 plus tax; 

About 1/5 of a 5 oz. can of Minwax Stain in Ebony: already had it from another project; 

Some painters tape: around $7.00; 

2 cans clear protective finish spray: around $6.00 (already had one can);

Some cheap washcloths from Ikea: already had them (rags would have worked but we haven't been married long enough for any of our old towels to turn to rags);

And some sand paper, 2 foam rollers, 2 foam brushes and 2 bristle brushes. I had everything but one extra foam brush, costing $1.00. So this project cost around $23.00. Not bad! 

Steps of project: 

1. Clean drawers-this was embarrassing, because I didn't realize how easily most of this stuff would come off. But it needed to be de-greased before painting, so I had at it and thought "Why didn't I do this years ago..." Maybe it's a good thing I didn't have my camera during this part. :S 
2. Use the first roller, bristle and foam brushes, and paint everything with the zinsser cover stain primer. This stuff doesn't wash out of brushes, so try to do this all at once or you'll have to buy more. We decided to only do one coat, mainly because of lack of patience. Everywhere I'd read online said 'foam brushes are sooo much better blah blah blah' but if you click on the dresser pic, can you see how many rivets there are?! There was no way foam was going to work on the front of those drawers. 
3. Apply first coat of turquoise paint. Finally found camera and took these: 

You'll have to forgive the shadows: we were working under some trees, since it was blazing hot and there was no way I was going to work on these in the garage. 

4. Get paint everywhere, including under-bum and sit on the lid. Yeah, I'm so awesome...

4.5. Go to library with daughter with said paint bum for some fun reactions.

5. Back to business: If there are any bubbles in the paint in the crevices on your dresser, push down on them to eliminate with something. We used a spackling spatula thing-worked like a charm. 

6. Using the sandpaper, sand down where 'natural wear' would occur on the dresser. Which means...who knows. Just do your best. :) We got better at this with each drawer. But I forgot to take pics, surprise surprise.

7. Using a bristle brush, paint on the stain. This part was intimidating for me-the project stood still for a while as I researched how I was going to 'antique' the dresser. But it was soo so easy! After you paint it on nice and thick, just take the rags (or washcloths, in our case) and wipe off the stain. Wipe harder if you want it to look lighter; apply more stain and wait longer before wiping if you think it should look darker. 

Here's a comparison of stained drawers and not:  

Excuse shadows :S

8. Spray the protective finish evenly. This part was funny to me-everywhere I saw online, when applying a spray finish or spray paint or anything, you're supposed to apply a thin, even coat, then gradually more coats. But I thought this was wayyyy easier said then done, so I just sprayed like mad and called it good. 

AAANNNNNDDDD here is the finished (minus drawer handles, that's another story) dresser!