Playroom Furniture: Finally Painted!

Hello hello!  It's been on my home to do list forever but I finally did it:  I finally painted the two pieces of furniture in the kids' playroom that I've been meaning to paint forever.  I don't mind painting furniture, but getting started is always a daunting task.  You need the right supplies, you need a well-ventilated space and most of all, you need time to paint and time for the paint to cure.

In this case, I decided to paint one piece white, which, if you know me, you know is not a surprise.  I decided to paint the sofa table the same pale greenish-blue that I used on my little chest in my bedroom.  I thought that color would look really good.  Here are the pieces before I got started:

I had two pieces to paint: (1) the dresser for the TV and (2) the sofa table.  The dresser was my son's when he was smaller.  While the dresser is now too small to hold his ever-growing clothes (no! stop growing!), it's perfect for a TV chest.  And the sofa table was a freebie from my parents - they didn't need it anymore, and I did.  My mom used it to hold her plants, so the top had a little water damage.  Nothing that a can of paint can't fix!!

The process that I always follow for painting furniture is as follows:

• protect:  lay out a huge drop cloth and move your pieces to it so there is enough room for you to move around;
• prepare:  clean off all furniture pieces and make sure they are completely dry before you begin painting;
• prime:  I use Zinsser oil based primer.  I also buy throw away brushes (very cheap ones) and use those and rollers to apply the primer.  I do not have the patience or the inclination to try to salvage the brushes after I've used the oil based primer.  I also wear throw away rubber gloves when I prime.  Depending on the color that I'm covering, I either do one or two coats of primer.  In this case, I went with two coats because I was going light over dark. Primer is a mess, but trust me that it is worth doing two coats of primer in many cases.  You will save yourself a few coats of paint on top!
• paint:  once the primer dries, I then apply my paint.  I swear by Sherwin Williams Pro Classic for furniture.  I painted the chest in Dover White in a semi-gloss finish (three coats) and the sofa table Rainwashed by Sherwin Williams (two coats).  As for brushes, I use a nicer brush for furniture and rollers.  
• poly:  once the paint fully dries, I use water-based Polycrilic to seal the finish.  I do two very light coats of poly and then let it cure for 48 hours.  

And here are the pieces now!

The dresser is my favorite transformation.  I swapped out the old knobs for ones that I had in my stash.  I love how it looks, though I want the pulls to be more gold than bronze.  I think I'll either spray paint them or use a little gold rub n' buff on them. 

I am in the home stretch of the playroom.  I also finally hung pictures and decorated the TV area (which you can kind of see in the "after" pictures above).  I'll be sure to share that soon.  Now there are just a few little things left to do!