80's laminate dresser makeover

my friend has had this dresser her whole life and she wanted to redo it. The picture she showed me of the style she wanted was a super distressed real wood dresser. When she showed me a picture of the dresser she wanted redone I asked her I could just buy her a new one that was real wood lol. But she was attached to hers so I did what I could. I am bummed, because I forgot to take a before picture and it was such a crazy transformation.

What I did to make it look like real distressed wood was to first paint it a wood color. Since when you took off the 80's gold handles and a couple of screws the drawers fronts came off I decided to use spray paint for the base. Once I had it painted dark brown I waxed it in areas where I wanted the second coat of paint to be removed.

The front has a transfer of a vintage bluish green paper and over the top I stenciled. We picked out new handles and there you go.