Old Flat, New Flair III

In my poorly designed kitchen, my fridge sticks out exactly 13 inches beyond the edge of the cabinet that holds my sink, which left a usable but underutilized space. I bought a $29 dresser from Ikea (they had one that was exactly 13 inches deep!), some paint, glue, and drawer pulls, and turned it into what is probably the coolest piece of furniture in my apartment.
*Note: This is hardly a sweeping statement... 

How perfect is this fit?

I found the Elmer's Glue technique online while I was poking around looking for painting techniques that looked complicated but were actually easy to pull off. I was a bit skeptical that it would really work, but I read multiple articles that swore it was the real thing, and the dresser was so cheap I figured I could pick up another one if I totally botched it.

Here's what I did:

Step 1
I painted the dresser with a deep red basecoat. I could have left the plain, unfinished pine as the first layer, but I wanted something with color. I let it dry completely (very important).

Step 2
I smeared it liberally with Elmer's. The more glue, the bigger the cracks. I didn't want huge cracks, but I went a bit nuts with the glue. Whoops... Good thing I like the basecoat color.

I bought a brush dedicated solely to glue, although since the Elmer's is water-soluble it actually came off pretty well.

Step 3
After waiting for the glue to get tacky - i.e. starting to dry and look a bit more opaque -  I covered the whole thing with a bone-colored paint.

How tacky!

Step 4
Wait, watch, whoa! The cracks started to appear after just a few minutes and became larger and more defined as time went by. It was pretty cool to watch! From what I can tell, the glue pulls cracks in the top coat as it dries, revealing whatever color you put underneath.

Starting off...

...and getting bigger!

Close-up of a finished drawer. The real thing looks more white and less yellow.

Had my cracks been smaller and had I chosen either plain wood or a brown color underneath, the dresser would have looked like an antique. As it is, it looks funky and unique, and has become a stylish place to stash reusable bags, votive candles, and whatever else that used to be homeless.

Ta-da!