What You Talkin ’bout Ombre

Mid-Century-Manly-Ombre-Dresser

I am a simple girl. I like my toast to be buttered, my buffets to be mid century, and my painted furniture to take the form of a gradient. You know what I’m talkin’ bout ……OMBRE.

I’m admittedly obsessed with it. I’ve been wanting to ombre something so bad that I’ve basically developed a twitch. When we threw our hat in the Young House Love/Bower Power Pinterest Challenge (here), it was totally time to get our ombre on. We already had our craigslist dresser, all we needed were the paint colors.

Here’s our pinterest inspiration picture.


via

Look familiar? Yes it’s the same inspiration for our color blocked bentwoods (and here). Instead of the chair, we used the ombre desk as inspiration this round. Nick wasn’t about to have his dresser ombred in coral (paraphrase: “grumble grumble girly grumble grumble”), so we went the more manly route.

We had pacer white left over from the bentwoods and decided to use that as the outside color. From lightest to darkest our colors are sand dollar, sands of time, portabello, and kaffee. These are Sherwin Williams colors that we matched in Behr Premium Plus Ultra (since you know I love Behr).

We followed our own guide to painting furniture (except we used polycrylic as the protectant instead of polyurethane since it yellows on lighter colors). Nick put his own twist on painting the legs. Standing them up on egg crates (kid has his moments).

Nick actually started off the painting process….let’s just say painting furniture isn’t exactly his spiritual gift. (Also I might have mentioned something along the lines of him actually reading my post about painting furniture.) So I jumped in when the project looked like this….

And now that we’ve given it the full wills casa treatment, it looks like this:

So what do you think about our manly Ombre? Did you join in on the Pinterest Challenge as well? We’d love to hear from ya!

Check out Sherry’s Beanbag, Katie’s WatercolorCassie’s faux antlers, and Erin’s Mason Jar Chandelier.

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COMMENTS

38 Responses to What You Talkin ’bout Ombre
  1. Elizabeth says:

    This is beautiful! Do you think it would be possible to just add more and more white to a dark brown for each drawer and have this work? I’d rather not buy 4 different cans of paint… rather just use what I have! What do you think?

    • Nick says:

      Probably would be possible if you used a scientific way of mixing (maybe like a kitchen scale?)…..We definitely hear you about not wanting to buy 4 cans…we have so many laying around the garage now!

    • Amber says:

      You could have samples mixed. There would be plenty of paint in a sample to cover the drawers. We didn’t because (1) we didn’t think about it and (2) I’ve read that samples aren’t as durable. To be honest if we would have thought about it, we would have just gotten the samples and saved the money! Now I guess we need to find another project to use the leftover paint!

  2. Crystal says:

    Great job! I love the way the dresser turned out and your choice of colors…understated but with a wow factor! Dropping by from YHL Pinterest challenge.

    • Amber says:

      Thanks Crystal! Your bench looks fantastic! I love your entry lights too. I pinned one that is very similar a while back! Thanks for stopping by.

  3. That looks fabulous! Nice job!

  4. Love it! If people knew the treasures they’re putting up for sale on Craigslist, they’d flip! The ombre effect works perfectly on this piece, and love the “manly” colours that you used. Such a great way to modernize and update an older piece of furniture :-)

    I linked up a gallery wall tutorial to the Pinterest Challenge. Hope you’ll stop by and check it out – the wall is painted a good manly colour 😉

  5. This is GORGEOUS! I’ve been dying to paint something ombre as well …. its’ so fun. Your project turned our perfect!

    • Amber says:

      Jenn, you better get on it before you start getting the shakes! Thanks for the compliment!

      Your light fixture looks incredible!

  6. This is gorgeous!! I love the colours you used ever better than the inspiration!! So chic but fun.

    • Amber says:

      Thanks so much Tanya!

      I need to send you an email an see if I can begin my courtship of your artwork……cause you know……I’m in love.

  7. I actually haven’t seen any thing ombré pinned on Pinterest. I really like it though and would love to give something like this a try. It is beautiful… And “manly” of course.

    • Amber says:

      I haven’t seen much ombred furniture other than the inspiration picture I used, but I see a ton of layer cakes! Can’t wait to make one of those next! Maybe chocolate to vanilla in the spirit of the dresser!

  8. Ombre makes me drool. Love your color selection!

  9. shelley flores says:

    You guys are maniacs! And I mean that in the best way!

  10. Tamsyn says:

    This looks amazing!! I love the colors you chose. I’m going to give this a go in pink for one of my nieces rooms :)

  11. This is so gorgeous and fun and perfect…and I’m in love and a little obsessed with it!! Thanks for sharing and linking up!

  12. cassie says:

    i love this! i have done a couple ombre dressers as well and i love them most on the MCM style like this. i love the colors you chose! i also love your colorblocked chairs that i checked out. hey chair, i am ready for some fancy dancing tonight. :)

    • Amber says:

      Thanks Cassie! Ombre is my new crush. Although our color blocked chairs are my favorite project so far! I love the tree branch curtain rod you did and those awesome ruffle curtains! Very cool.

  13. Kerry says:

    Found you via Pinterest and I have to say that this came out beautifully!! It really looks awesome. You (and the orignal Pinterest post/pin) have inspired me to try this!!

  14. Wow– this looks like it belongs in a magazine! Great job, and thanks for linking up with the Winter Pinterest Challenge!

    Erin

  15. I do love the colours you’ve done in your dresser in – it’s gorgeous! I have this linked to my ombre post too today, for inspiration!

  16. I love your finished product, especially that it is masculine. And the styling on the photo is great! I have linked to it from the Babycenter blog. Let me know if you have any issue with that!

  17. Kathleen says:

    Wow – LOVE your ombre dresser! It’s stylish without being fussy. Love that clean, modern look. Thanks for sharing!

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