Make a kids' dresser fun with magnetic paint!

I repainted my son's dresser and now it looks like this:

But sometimes it looks like this:

Or it could look like this:

 Really, the possibilities are endless because I used magnetic paint on the drawers!

This is how the dresser started... it's nice, but we changed his room and it didn't work with the new look. I wanted something industrial and boy-ish. Soooo, I painted it. I preped it using the same techniques listed in How to Paint a Dresser.

However, instead of regular paint on the drawers I used magnetic paint. It's kind of thick and requires at least three coats to actually work, so if you want a smooth finish, I recommend applying the paint with a smooth roller. However, because I was going for an industrial look, I chose to use a brush and kind of go crazy by painting every-which-way. The thickness of the paint and my wild brush strokes created a textured base.  You can [kind of] see it in this photo. 

Once I had my base coat on the drawers, it was time to achieve "my vision" through paint, hard work and magic. Well, my first attempt was not magical [at all]. If you missed the post and want to see the ugliness that followed... then check out When a DIY Project Turns Ugly [literally].  I had to redo the whole thing [which put me in a really great mood]. To achieve a more refined, [but still industrial] look I decided to paint over the black magnetic paint with a dark brown color. It was definately less harsh than the black base. Then, I took Rub n' Buff and applied a thin coat [using my fingers because that's how it works best]. I saw that going side to side with long strokes worked best. I wanted it to have an irregular texture, so if it was a little heavy in one area then I went lighter next to it... you just have to eye-ball it and adjust as necessary. And for the exterior of the dresser I chose to go with a calmer, gentler color the second time: I used a high gloss navy blue paint. I think that paint worked because it helped "ground" the dresser and because navy blue is a cool, dark color it really complimented the silver drawers. And the glossy finish also helped ensure that the industrial look didn't turn "dirty" [like it did in my first attempt].

Next, it was time to create the dresser adornments. I purchased magnetic paper from Walmart, and spray painted it red[ish]. Well, the paper didn't like my spray paint [it's made for an ink jet printer], so it dried with this weird texture [which was PERFECT! Finally a happy accident!]. Once it dried completely I measured the drawer height and cut 1" and 1.5" stripes. *Note: If you make stripes, make sure to measure each drawer... don't assume they are all the same size. The top drawer might be shorter than all the others... so if you don't notice it, assume they're all the same and cut them according to the top drawer only... IF you do that, then you'll have to go back and make a whole entire new sheet using the correct measurements of the remaining three drawers. Not that it happened to me [it totally happended to me].

Then, I used the remaining sheet [it came in a pack of three] to print off numbers for his drawers to give him more decorating options. And...I didn't do this, but here's another idea [just don't tell my son, because he'll want me to do it too]: you could get some fun stickers [like the Angry Birds stickers that I saw at Meijer... he'd love them.] and stick them onto the magnetic paper and then just cut them out. Stickers that aren't sticky... how perfect is that?!

So anyway, we now have all kind of options, and he really [really] likes moving things around and getting creative.

Here is how he chose to decorate it [for now anyway]. He decided to label his drawers using the letter magnets that we already had... isn't that just too cute [and yet so practical too]!! How fun is that?!