My oldest son is 13 and we needed a dresser for his room. I think we are going with an explorer type theme so I decided it would be fun to mod podge a map to his dresser. It was way easier than I thought it would be and turned out great.
I found this dresser on craigslist for $40. The top was laminate but the rest was wood.
I wood filled the big dents/dings and then lightly sanded the top. I primed it with Glidden Gripper primer followed up with 2 coats of Valspar enamel paint in black satin.
All painted!
I bought 4 new pulls for the bottom drawers but decided it would be cheaper to spray paint the knobs rather than buy new ones. The pulls are satin nickel so I tried out some of the satin nickel spray paint.
I’m pretty happy at how well the spray painted knobs matched the brand new pulls.
Then I moved on to the mod podge part. I used Matte mod podge because that’s what I had in my craft cupboard.
First I took a big paper map that I bought for $5 and layed it on the dresser. Then I just creased it where it touched the edges and cut along the crease.
Then I dumped a bunch of mod podge onto the dresser and brushed it around with an old paintbrush. Don’t use a paintbrush that you love because you will never get the glue all out.
All covered in mod podge. I just carefully set my cut out map onto the glue. You can move it around a teeny tiny bit buy try to get it close to where you want it because it’s hard to move once wet and will rip pretty easy.
Then I dumped another big glob of mod podge on top of the map and smeared it around. I wanted it to be a little bumpy and not totally smooth. Which was good because I think it would be impossible to make it smooth. I wanted some texture.
Close up of the wet map. The little bumps went away after it dried but i did try to smooth most of them out.
All dried. I went over with some navy blue craft paint on a wet rag to really make the textured areas come out.
Love! After the mod podge dried a few days I put two coats of polycrylic on it to make it more durable. Sometimes mod podge is sticky even after it is dry and the polycrylic will get rid of the stickiness.
So excited with how it turned out. I think the total cost was about $55 including the actual dresser, pulls, map and spray paint. The primer and black paint was leftover from other projects.
Linking up to:
>You are so creative! I love this! My folks had maps posted on our walls when I was growing up and I would run over and look at them all of the time – dreaming about all of the other places there were to live in the big, wide world.
>Love it! I'm still a Mod Podge virgin but I've been meaning to try it out … but on a smaller project for my first time.
>Creative idea! It turned out great!
>I really love this idea for a boy-sometimes its hard to think of a "crafty" thing that oiur guys will appreciate. The map would be great as a shelf-backer too.
>LOVE the map dresser. My mom is a geography teacher she would DIG this. In fact I think she has some shelves she needs redone. And this would be perfect. Thanks for the inspiration.
Would love if you linked up with us too at http://www.nothingbutcountry.com
>This is really, really cool! What a creative use of a map. Black really makes it pop! Thanks so much for sharing. I came here from Miss Mustard Seed.
>LOVE this and would Love for you to link to my Delightfully Inspiring Thursday Party, going on right now.
http://delightfulorder.blogspot.com/2011/05/delightfully-inspiring-thursday-party_25.html
DaNita
>I love it! What a great idea. I love that you embraced the bubbles and texture. I think it adds alot to the project. Well done!
>how fun! i bet you son loves it! where did you buy you map?
>this turned out SO good! and it looks WAY better than in the "before" pic
>You are definitely my kind of girl! I can't wait to spray paint my first find on craigslist!
Suzanne's blog ~ as for me and my house…
>I am so glad to know that the silver spray paint looks like the real thing.
>this is great, I love maps we have many around the house but none are adhered to furniture…hmmm *looks around trying to decide what table needs a map glued to it*
>I love anything with a map. This looks great. Now I'm in the mood to modge podge some maps on furniture!
>I love a great map project as well. It turned out fantastic!
>I absolutely LOVE this!!! You really did such a great job and it looks amazing. My son would get such a kick out of this and I may just have to come up with something similar for his dresser now!
Thank you so much for linking this up to Inspiration Friday this week~
Vanessa
>So cute! I've always thought doing a map theme would be so cool (not to mention educational!!) for a kid's room. Great job!
>Such a creative way to improve a dresser! Looks so nice! Great job
Veronica
>This is really great! Love it.
>It turned out super cute! Or, since it's for a boy's room, should I say ultra cool
>Great idea! You've inspired me to try more mod podge!
>that looks amazing! i love the map on the top- i did a similar dresser a while back in blue and that would have been the perfect touch!
>that looks amazing! i love the map on the top- i did a similar dresser a while back in blue and that would have been the perfect touch!
>That looks so great! The map idea is so cool!
>Brook! They are the same dressers!!! The top and bottom drawers were just switched around. I was missing the 2 of the 4 knobs on mine. I love how yours turned out!! Super great. I'm following you back now too
)
>I just made a post and featured yours, feel free to grab a stalked me button on my sidebar
)
>Love this dresser makeover! I'm a new follower.
>Could this be any cuter?! Love it.
>How awesome! We are getting ready to move my son into a larger bedroom and are also doing a "world traveler" theme. This idea is darling! Thanks for sharing! – Cares
Very cool. I’m thinking of doing something similar with an ikea table. Thanks for sharing.
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