Here She Is...

This is too much fun.  I finally got Em's dresser done, and it is now up in her, turning-ever-girlie-er room.  I may need to reign myself in.  But, not yet.

 So here is the dresser "before" for those of you who have never seen it.  It worked very well in Isaac's cowboy room. But it was a little too rustic for what I am going for in Em's room. So I asked someone who knows about these things, thank you, Melissa, and she thought I could definitely make something out of it with a little paint. So picture me giddily scouring Etsy for some incredible vintage hardware, which I found for about four dollars a pull.  Yay! This is by far the most dramatic change I have ever set about making to a piece of furniture.  We've painted Justin's old dresser a couple of times for the boys to use, and the diaper changing station has seen a few coats of paint.  Also the $35 bed I got from Craigslist got a coat of black paint before it went into Isaac's room.  But, this required a total personality change. (For the dresser, just to be clear.)

So, I loved the slats and grooves on the side, but didn't want to keep the ones on the drawers. Enter wood filler. That was quite a process and I was nowhere near as precise or careful as I could/should have been.  But, given this thing is supposed to look banged up and shabby, it luckily works.  Next came paint.  I primed with a cream colored spray paint in a couple of coats.  Then rolled on more of a white shade.  After all of that I was somewhat pained by the idea of taking sandpaper to it and purposefully "messing up" all that hard work.  But, looking at it, I decided it really did need a little something.  After all, the hardware I'd bought had chippy black paint.  It would be silly to put those on a pristine paint job.  And in actuality it turned out to be the most fun part of the whole project.  Feeling like an artist.  After a couple of coats of varnish, my wonderful husband put on the handles and we finally got it into the room last night.  It only took two months start to finish. Ha!  But, it was worth it.  I love it and I didn't have to sell the dresser that my mom and I shopped so long for. Ah, memories.

                                              At any rate, she isn't perfect, but here she is.

My hubby says he loves that the handles look like butterflies.

This has always been one of my favorite parts of this thing.