This weekend I repurposed a old ratty dresser. My husband picked up the dresser at a thrift store a few weeks ago. It was $5. I went over it with a whisk broom and then sanded all the surfaces I wanted to paint. I took off the drawer pulls. I didn't have to to do much reinforcing, a couple of small nails to bind the sides to the bottom shelves and that was about it. I had a bunch of paint around the house so I got creative and mixed a few cans together. I ended up with a cool aqua blue for the background color and a light brown/tan for the drawers. I painted the base first and then did the drawers. It took two coats for the base and three for the drawers. ( I was covering over some sort of black paint, I did not need to prime it.) I went to the the big box hardware store and scored six new drawer pulls for .99 each. It is not the sturdiest dresser but it fits in my bedroom and will be perfect for storing lightweight stuff that overflows from my "main" dresser. Um, I own A LOT of socks and tee shirts for working out.
I'm not factoring in the paint since it was just laying about, I now have a really pretty addition to my bedroom for $11.