Friday, April 1, 2011

Union Jack Dresser


Thank Miss Mustard Seed and Matt Blatt and for the inspiration!  My take on the Union Jack dresser. I just love it!



I've been keeping an eye out for a dresser with the correct proportions for three months now. I don't have a before photo but you can imagine the poor state this was in. The Union Jack needs to be twice as wide as high. I finally found a suitable candidate in this dresser as it's 40 inches wide and 20 inches high. I drew the Union Jack on with dressmakers chalk.


I started by sanding back the dresser and priming it. Next time I do a dark coloured paint I'll make sure I either don't prime or I don't prime in white as I had to give this baby 5 coats of blue paint. I then painted on the red parts and lastly the white. I started using masking tape but ended up just painting free-hand as I wanted it all to look natural. 




I then gave it all a light distressing on the edges and put back the original hardware which is gorgeous and suits the piece so well. 

For the top of the dresser I sanded it then washed it down with oxalic acid to remove the black marks (always use a face mask when sanding after using oxalic acid as it can be fatal to breathe in the dust). I then top coated the raw oak with several coats of Miniwax Wipe On Poly, sanding in between each coat with superfine 0000 steel wool. I was originally going to stain this surface darker but I'm glad I didn't as the oak grain shows up beautifully.

When I bought the dresser it had a piece of oak sticking up vertically which looked weird and was backed with the piece of wood you can see in the above photo. I pulled this off and glued on the blue moulding along the back as it had cut outs from where a mirror had been previously (not when i bought it) and I wanted to cover them up.

I love this but am selling it. I wish I had room in my son's bedroom for this but I don't. I'm sure someone will snap this up. Fingers crossed.

See here for a tutorial on how to draw the Union Jack correctly

I'd love to hear your comments.

cheers
Fiona

20 comments:

  1. Ok lady... it doesn't jack more fun than this! I love it, job well done!

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  2. i just love it! i want to do this, but am nervous about getting all the lines straight...
    you did a wonderful job!!

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  3. I love it, but I would, being as I am British, I too am on the search for a dresser to do this too, my son would love it in his room.

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  4. Love how it turned out! I just bought a dresser to try this on. I never really thought about it's measurements in relationship to the flag. I guess I'll have to cross my fingers.

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  5. That looks fantastic! Give yourself a big pat on the back Fiona!!!
    Angex

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  6. How awesome! You've done an amazing job. I'd love to give this a try!
    Megs :)
    www.megandmums.blogspot.com

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  7. I did one too & for the first time posted it to MMS's linky party !! Doesn't the room that your Jack lives in come alive now ?? We love ours ! I can't wait to do another one ... there is a very old dresser in my studio just waiting for it's new flag (that i bought from CL for $30)!! great job!!

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  9. WOW!! SPECTACULAR!!! After all that work though, I just couldn't sell it! ;)

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  10. Fiona, you rock, just printed the amazing (to scale) art for how to draw the UJ correctly. thanks for the link ... and will be in touch :-)

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  11. you're incredible! so glad i found you via miss mustard seed. i appreciate so much that you shared every step so beautifully. can't wait to come back! come visit soon!

    michele

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  12. I am so inspired to try my hand at this. Great job!

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  13. Oh, it looks awesome! I've been wanting to try something like this ever since I saw Miss Mustard Seed's. I'd love it if you'd come link this up over at Favorite Things Friday.

    http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/2011/03/favorite-things-friday-no-17.html

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  14. You did an awesome job...looks fabulous!

    http://www.rustiqueartblog.com

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  15. fiona- you did an awesome job with this! i had to pop over because your comment made me laugh- too many sangrias with friends. i think if you were over in the states, we would be good friends. :) off to become a new follower! :)

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  16. Love the drawer pulls! Oh, and love the paint too! Working on a Union Jack myself. Thanks for the tips on portion!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment! Sorry if you have trouble commenting, you can always email me at lilyfieldlife@bigpond.com