Garbardine, you ask? Why let me tell you – Garbardine is the name of the odd dark teal-ish/grey/slate colour I picked to paint my new dresser… Wikipedia tells me that garbardine means “..a tough, tightly woven fabric used to make suits, overcoats, trousers, uniforms, windbreakers, and other garments.” Collective “Ohhhh of course.” It all makes more sense. When my mother saw the colour, she remarked, “That’s a very vintage-y looking colour.” I obviously smiled. I didn’t intend for it to look like that but basically it is perfectly me. It fits in with my other colour ‘likes’ right now: burnt reddish/orange/coral, brown, mustard yellow, dark wood….

So what’s the back story? I have been searching Kijiji for a new dresser for ages… Like months. To no avail. Nada. Nothing. Except a bunch of over-priced, ugly pieces of furniture. Then one day, a nice, solid looking wood dresser popped up. I wrote – she responded. I picked it up the next day. It was the perfect Kijiji exchange. Except the pictures were a wee bit flattering. The dresser was in worse shape than the pictures had led me to believe – but it wasn’t a problem, I had already planned on painting it. I had originally wanted to go with the ombre look. Something like this (but with different shades of gray):

Image from Nol 

I love the way it looks… But I was worried that straight up teal and blues would look either (1) too childish or (2) too feminine. So I thought, right, I’ll go gray…

Then I got to Home Depot. Buying 4 tubs of paint to paint one drawer seemed like a silly decision. So instead, I decided on white for the exterior (Behr, Frost: 1857), and Gabardine for the drawers (Martha Stewart: MSL271). Before I painted it with those colours, I gave her several coats of Para Ultra furniture paint.

Sadly I forgot to take true before pictures (and the ad got taken down immediately, doh!).

Being primed and covering up all the scars of living in a student dorm.

Getting some colour involved.

 Progress. And my weird feet. I always thought my feet weren’t that odd but looking at this image, they are weird. I shall not tell you what my friends call them (no one effin comment or else!).

Isn’t the colour awesome? So glad I picked it.

First coat! ZING!

So now I am just going to jump to the final product because I lack patience.

Handles up close.

The inspiration for the colour choice actually came from a colour that is in my sweet Italian wool blanket that I bought in the winter.

I love my blanket. I really really love it. So much so, that I hate putting it out on my bed, for fear one of the pets will get fur all over it. I hate that. So instead I just keep it apart. And pull it out when I know they won’t be coming in. Maybe I am going to be one of those gramma’s who puts plastic on my favourite pieces of furniture (no way but wouldn’t that be funny?).

Since iPhone pictures aren’t always the best images (although they are the EASIEST to snap), I also took some with my poor camera (who is sadly neglected most days).

This project was easy peasy lemon squeezy. And super affordable. And I know it will grow with me (I have this fear of painting something and a year later wishing it wasn’t that colour anymore)…