Ah yes! The DREADED country heart cutout! So many otherwise perfectly good pieces of small furniture are ‘kicked to the curb’ because of the outdated heart cutout!
And THIS piece had the double WHAMMY of being painted with roses and blue ribbon.
 It’s an otherwise, cute little piece. Everyone LOVES things with ‘little drawers’. But the heart and the roses HAD to go. The orbital sander took off the roses just fine. (If you JUST paint over them they will still show up as the painted part is slightly ‘raised’)
Sometimes I just use carved wood appliques to cover up the heart cutouts. But this one was pretty BIG, and I didn’t like the ‘curve’ of the back. So Michael just cut a ‘cover piece’ and I glued it on top of the back piece. Then painted the whole thing black.
‘Dry bushed’ some mustard color paint; used a foam stamp to make stars at the center of each knob. Painted the knobs black too.
From foo-foo to primitive in about an hours time!
You can see LOTS more country heart make-overs in the outdated/updated category.
AJ's Trash2Treasure BLOG 
I had one like this, but someone actually bought it country blue with the heart. You never know.
Fab idea! I have some things like this that I just didn’t want to get rid of. Now I know what to do. Thanks!
Did you cover the back too, or is the heart and shape still visible from the back?
We did NOT cover the back. We WANT everyone who sees it to notice what it used to be, and be inspired to update some of their own. Also, covering nthe back would have left a 1/2″ gap between the front and back piece, which would have been difficult to fill in.
aj
Thanks for your quick answer and the inspiration! I agree, I like people to see how I transformed something.
These are great. I just love what you do with paint. I’ve been just painting my furniture with the intent to rough it up a bit, age it, with some sanding. But once it’s painted I chicken out because it looks so pretty and I’m scared to mess a good thing up. But I do so love the look of the aging.
I’m going to white wash my bedroom dresser. It’s really old, has that laminate wood on it that has chipped in one place, on the front of the dresser. I hope it looks alright whitewashed. Have you ever whitewashed a piece that had a bit of broken off laminate?
Thanks for all of your posts, I’ve gotten some great ideas from you. I just did the empty frames with some sand dollars and one with a starfish. I love how they turned out. My husband laughed at me and said, “Now you can’t see the picture that you’re going to put in that frame.” He’s a dork, no imagination for decor!
Painting ON the laminate could be the trickier part. I’ve never tried painting laminate since we ‘pick and choose’ the pieces we do. Is the stuff UNDER the laminate WOOD or particle board? Particle board will soak up paint like a sponge. If the chip is small enough you MAY be able to fill it with wood filler, then sand it and paint it right along with the rest of the dresser. Sometimes a chipped corner can just be ‘left as is’ and add to the charm of a distressed piece. I’ts hard for me to say without SEEING the piece. My best GUESS for painting the laminate would be to use a GOOD primer on it first (We always use KILZ primer) And since the laminate is so ‘slick’ I’d probably go with the SPRAY on KILZ. IF the rest of the dresser has a SHINY finish, you’ll need to prime or sand it for the paint to adhere. Good luck! Take pictures of your progress. I’d love to see how it turns out via before/after photos. aj
Sophie’s Cottage OUR BLOG: https://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/