$15 Rummage Dresser Turned Coffee Nook

Summer is here and with it comes the start of a season I really love…..rummage sale season! Once the weather starts to improve, it seems to prompt people to wanna clean out their attic, stick a sign in their yard and sell some junk! But as the saying goes, “One person’s junk is another man’s treasure!”

I was lucky enough to find some treasure of my own while out rummaging a few weeks ago. I had been on the hunt for a small cabinet or dresser for my kitchen that I wanted to makeover into a coffee nook area. I have always had luck finding very affordable furniture for my home at local estate sales or rummages. Most of them come home with me, get a little sanding, a good paint job and they are transformed into something new again. I love doing this with pieces that have “good bones” – meaning made prior to the cheap fiber board furniture era!

I stumbled upon a rummage sale with a few smaller pieces of furniture and found a little wooden dresser that would work nicely – it had lots of drawer space for storage and a melamine top for easy wiping and cleaning . I measured it to make sure it would work for the space I had and it was perfect! The best part was the price tag! $15 later and it was in the back of my van, coming home for a makeover.

My kitchen also recently received a mini-makeover – a fresh coat of paint on the walls was much-needed after 7 years of chips, nicks, kids & pets! It had been a very soft sage color, but I was ready to brighten it up and so we went with a very light neutral with just a tint of aqua. The color is Valspar’s Beach House Blue. I got a steal of a deal at our local hardware store because they had just clearanced out all of the Valspar Aspire paint, so it was marked down much cheaper than normal.

The color is still growing on me. It is much different from what I am used to! It really lightens up our kitchen a lot and makes it feel much bigger. It reminds me of the color of the sky.

The main color I love to pop accents with in my kitchen is red, but I do have a lot of coral mixed in here and there as well. So, this Rhubarb color by Benjamin Moore was the perfect in between hue for my rummage dresser. Actually, I was in the paint store with my 4-year-old son, while trying to figure out a color, and I was leaning towards just painting it white to match my built-in hutch, but my son told me to “paint it red, Mommy!” So sure, why not?

I do like the way the two new colors in our kitchen compliment each other.

The first thing this dresser needed was a good wiping down and then bring on the paint! It got 2 coats of the Rhubarb color again in the Valspar Aspire paint and it was a very pretty shade of reddish/coral.

I left the top brown since it is wood grain melamine and can be easily wiped down with spills since a coffee maker will be sitting here.

I wanted to tone down the brightness of the Rhubarb color, so I used an antique wax by Waverly Inspirations to give it that distressed, vintage look. All I did was apply the wax with a brush lightly, then wiped over it with a cotton cloth to give it a streaked look. Instant old charm!

Here is how it looks when the wax is dried. All you need to do is buff it with a dry cotton cloth about 24 hours after it has dried. I spray painted the handles black.

I love the way this little dresser turned out!

I’m pretty excited about all the storage these 3 drawers have to offer! Top drawer is for coffee filters and cloth napkins.

Middle drawer is for all our coffee, tea, hot chocolate, beans and grinder. I also have room for my “good silverware” storage box and cookbook stand in here.

Bottom drawer is overflow for cookbook storage. I have another whole cabinet full of these as well. I have a pretty large collection.

This coffee nook makeover wouldn’t be complete without a few extra perks to help wake it up! Ever since our family’s trip this spring to Florida, I have been inspired to find a similar coffee cup holder like the one at the beach house we stayed at. You can read more about that awesome trip here.

After searching online for a while, I found a few different options. Anything from the high-end of the spectrum aka Magnolia Farms style….to the more realistic-in-my-budget spectrum, via Amazon.com! Guess which one I ended up choosing for my wall? I do love me some JoAnna Gaines style, but not quite the dollar amount I was looking for!

Here’s how it ended up looking on my wall! I zoomed in on some of our favorite coffee mugs for our java each morning. I love how there’s still plenty of room to add to our own growing eclectic collection!

The last thing this little nook needed was a shelf. I already had a black wooden shelf that I relocated from a different spot in our home to fit nicely here over the dresser. A few of my white milk glass pieces and a fun rooster framed piece of artwork added some farmhouse charm.

This artwork was actually a free printable that I found over at another blog, Lost Bumble Bee. You can check it out here if you’d like to download one for yourself!

It all came together rather nicely in our little coffee corner! Thanks to a $15 rummage sale find, some cheap paint and online deals, we can now enjoy our coffee each morning in style!

I think I’ll go grab myself a cup right now! Have a great morning! Be sure to stop back again next week when I’ll reveal my new living room gallery wall and a simple DIY project that will keep your kids’ summer boredom at bay!