Bedside Lockers - Distressing & Drawer Lining

You learn a lesson from every piece of furniture you remodel, no matter how much experience you have.  I have been restoring and revamping furniture for many years and I'm still learning today.

I didn't use a base colour before I painted these lockers beige and because they were a natural pine, which was very close in colour to the paint I used on them, when I distressed them, the effect was quite subtle. In this case, this is what I wanted however, if you did want a more pronounced distressing it would be best to darken up the furniture by painting a quick coat of a darker colour before you paint on the intended colour so that when you sand it there is a contrast.  I'll use a dark wax to finish these and that will intensify the distressing some more but I want these finished with a lighter distressing than ususal.

You'll need to click on the photo to see an enlarged version.

I painted the insides of the drawers using the same paint but without adding the Plaster of Paris as I didn't want to seal the interiors with wax as these lockers will be used for clothing and a more 'satin' finish suited best for this.  I also lined the drawers as you can see below with this great vintage fabric that I picked up.  I bought a metre and have some left over (for another project) as the drawers are quite small.