The art deco waterfall-style dresser I did buy had seen better days. It was missing veneer in a number of places, and deep scratches marred the wood. The structure itself, however, was really sturdy. I could probably have tried to match and replace the veneer, but considering my skill set at the time, painting seemed the best option.

 

 

When the overall spray paint coat was dry, I removed the tape and newspaper, sectioned off the four panels, and painted each separately with a pearlescent green paint, following the direction of the woodgrain with my brushstrokes. My thought had been that the paint would reflect the grain effect, but cover over the obvious scratches.

 

What happened, however, was the varnish reacted with the paint, causing a sort of crackle-paint effect, and allowing a bit of the original wood grain to show through. As artist Bob Ross would say, it was a “happy little accident.” To tie the piece in further into my color scheme, I found a photo of a deco-nouveau rose tile on the Internet, printed it out on a color printer, cut around the pattern, and decoupaged it to the very center of the four panels.

 

I then painted a brushable varnish over the entire dresser.