Dressin’ Up

When you find a dresser on Craigslist for $10, you buy it.  Well, I do.  Especially when it’s solid wood with dove-tailed drawers and clean lines.  Yes. 

But you also get what you pay for.  This guy was in need of serious work.  And he reeked of curry.  Don’t be fooled into thinking he was all cute and chipper…

To eliminate the odor and give myself some time to figure out what in the world I was going to do with him, I left him in our garage for several months.  I didn’t really intend for his time out to last so long, but that’s kind of the way it goes for me anymore.  Can you relate? 

Lately I’ve really been into the two-toned look of paint paired with stain.  Ummhmm.  It’s a bit of a cottagey look, which I also love.  This photo ended up being my inspiration from LizMarieBlog. 

It was basically the kick in the pants I needed in order to get started—which was pretty daunting since it required some steps that I’ve never done before, like stripping and staining. 

Although painting is the most rewarding part of the refinishing process for me—since you see such a major change in such a short amount of time—I knew that in order to bring this dresser fully back to life, I needed to strip it down to the bare bones.  To do this, I used paint stripper (a first for me), and then I sanded it with 60 grit and finally 220 grit paper.  I wasn’t sure that the 220 grit was necessary, but it brought such a lovely smooth finish to the wood that I will definitely use it on future projects. 

As usual, things got worse before they got better…

Then I gave everything a coat of primer and several coats of paint (one coat of Minwax Jacobean stain on the drawer fronts—I let it sit for about 10 minutes before wiping it off), plus some polyurethane on the top, as it tends to be the most heavily used part of the dresser.  Then I painted the inside of the drawers and added some hex-like contact paper that I snagged at HomeGoods.  Glass knobs from Hobby Lobby were the final touch. 

Love!

Sadly, even though I tried multiple times to find the perfect spot for him in our home, it was a lost cause.  Our house is small and cramming it just emphasizes that fact.  I tried selling him at our yard sale last weekend, and while lots of people expressed interest, only one guy was willing to pay more than the usual $5 yard sale price, but he never came back for it.  So I put the dresser on Craigslist and got loads of interest!  I was so happy to send him off with a sweet young mom and her son tonight—and I was really glad that the semi-creepy guy didn’t end up with it at our yard sale.  I think our dresser found his rightful home.  *Happy sigh.*

Projects like this are about getting my hands dirty and enjoying the process of redeeming a piece.  If I kept every knick and knack that I redid, our house would be overflowing with stuff, so it’s really fun for me to find ways to give and sell it to others.  In case you’re wondering, this project took me several months of on and off work, as I had to squeeze it in during Liam’s naps.  It could definitely be done in less time, but if you’re a mom like me, it’s at least nice to know that it can be done—just take your time.  : )

*ACE Hardware occasionally gives away free quarts of their Clark & Kensington paint, so I snagged Colonial Blue and used it on this dresser.  Although it’s a flat paint, it actually has the quality of a satin finish.*

A final before and after…

Nursery Furniture

Happy Wednesday morning!  I just finished grading my last online discussion posts of the year—whoohoo!  Final exams…well, those will have to wait until next week.  The end is in sight, ladies and gents!  Although I’m not sure if any gents actually read this blog…maybe my dad?  Little bro?  If so, welcome!

Blogging has clearly been at the bottom of my list lately, but I thought I should update y’all on the nursery.  It’s done enough that if a baby came tonight—gulp—we would be okay.  In all honesty, we would have been fine if the nursery was mismatched and chaotic, so maybe I should say that I would be okay.  Haha.  Perhaps it’s more about the mom feeling prepared…

We definitely made our biggest strides when my mom and aunt came out, as they painted walls and furniture, bedazzled curtains, and decked out the room with frames for art.  My mom was a whiz at painting the room!  I’m pretty sure she did it all within about four hours, and that included two coats of paint, plus painting the inside of the closet.  But this post is about furniture, so let me get back to the point.  Our nursery consists of used furniture, which we were extremely happy to receive, in addition to making a few Craigslist purchases.  Buying a new set just wasn’t in the budget for us, and when it comes down to it, I thoroughly enjoy the process of making used pieces feel cohesive and new.  Plus, I love it when a room evolves over time.  Take a peek into our progress…

Remember how I bought this rocker off of Craigslist awhile back? (I was air-drying the cushions after washing them…)

As it turns out, the cover was much harder to…cover…than I originally thought it would be.  My kind neighbor was willing to help tackle the project, but in the end I decided that it wasn’t worth the headache, nor the extra cost of upholstery fabric.  Thankfully, I was able to resell the rocker for the same price I paid for it, and then a few days later I bought another rocker for $30 off Craigslist.  This time, the rocker was pretty much everything I wanted.  The owners took extra good care of it, and they even had it recovered recently in a fabric that I was happy with.  To top it off, they were super nice people and we spent about 30 minutes chatting before I actually paid them for the rocker.  It felt right. 

All I did was prime and paint the rocker white (actually, my aunt did it for me—thanks, AJ!).  Tadaa! 

The other piece of furniture that needed some TLC was a table given to us by some good friends.  Apparently they swiped the table off of www.freecycle.org when they first got married, so I didn’t feel bad taking it off their hands for nothing. 

My original idea was to paint the table white in order to match the rocker and changing table dresser, but it looked pretty washed out.  Mom suggested painting the top a darker color, so we just wrapped a garbage bag around the white base, gave the top a few coats of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint, by Rustoleum, and then a few coats of polyurethane to keep it from getting scratched and beat up.  I love the final result! 

The dark top really helps to ground the table and ties it in nicely with the other dark brown accents in the room.  It makes me want to find more free tables…they have so much potential!  Actually, some friends called us the other night to tell us about a free desk that was on the side of the road.  I sooo wanted to pick it up and give it a second life, but I said no.  It’s getting harder to maneuver myself into the positions needed to paint, I probably shouldn’t paint right now, and with a baby coming soon, I need to allow myself a little time to relax.  I hope someone else decided to redeem that desk! 

In other baby related news, my sweet 7th grade students and their parents threw us a surprise baby shower at school yesterday!  They went all out on food, décor, thoughtful notes of encouragement, and gifts galore!  It was a blast, and we were so blessed by their efforts.  They even gave us a huge lawn sign that we can apparently stick in our yard when the baby comes.  It has a place to write the name, weight, etc.  I guess it’s an easy way to let the neighbors in on the action! 

Detail Dallies

Happy Monday, all!  Our weekend consisted of warmer weather, juicy hamburgers, games with friends, and a good old fashioned house cleaning.  Oh, and I whipped up these tasty orange-chocolate-chunk muffins—one of my favorite combos.  Hopefully you were able to relax and indulge in a bit of springtime activity.  We’re thinking next weekend it’s time to tackle the garage, which is sorely in need of rescue…

While I haven’t written much about it lately, our nursery is progressing.  It won’t be painted until my mom comes to visit in April (I’m actually saving up a bunch of mini-painting projects for her), but we’ve got some of the big pieces in place, which I’ll be sharing as they come into completion.  This weekend I wrapped up the details of our changing table dresser.  Remember this guy?

While I love cheery white furniture, I thought new knobs would add some pizzazz, plus the original wood ones were looking a bit chippy.  I also wanted to cover the inside of the drawers in decorative paper for a fresh feel—and because who doesn’t love that tiny surprise of finding a pattern tucked into a drawer? 

So other than giving the dresser a quick coat of white paint, I dallied in the details, which tends to be my favorite part of decorating. 

During a trip to Hobby Lobby, I spotted these star-like beauties for 50% off and ran home to try them out. 

Sadly, one of them broke as soon as it was tugged on, so I hunted down a new one on my next trip to HL and actually purchased a few extras just in case it happens again.  Their tawny taupe color and slightly jagged texture definitely tug on this girl’s heart strings. 

For the record, I’ve been having really good luck at Marshall’s lately—my second home—and found this self-adhesive drawer liner for a song.  And it came in a two-pack! 

I’ve been slightly obsessed with bamboo patterns recently and this was the perfect blend of bright, clean pattern to add to a boy’s dresser. 

For some reason most of the drawer liners I’ve run across are floral and scented, which was not exactly the route I wanted to go.  As a back up, I was prepared to go this route and use high quality wrapping paper with Mod Podge if necessary, but the self-adhesive liner worked like a charm.  It was pretty easy to cut and lay out, since there was a grid to follow on the back, although it took some patience to make sure there were no stray air bubbles hanging around (I used our debit card to smooth the paper into place). 

The final product…

Gotta love how those details give the dresser a unique feel.  I keep opening the drawers and oohing over the “surprise” of the bamboo paper.  (The knobs look really dark in the photo above, but they actually change color depending on the lighting, as they’re more of a translucent glassy brown.)

What are your favorite details to add to a room?  Knobs?  Drawer liners?  Funky patterns?  Lighting?  A bold piece of art?  Divvy up the details, please!

I’m Dreaming of…

 

That’s right.  Baby nurseries.  Any guesses why? 

Chair Flair

You may recall these lovely legs…

Well, I finally got around to clothing them in some fresh paint and starchy linens!  Because I’m not an expert in upholstery (that’s the understatement of the year…), and since Little Green Notebook recently posted  a fantastic DIY upholstery series on her blog, I decided to simply give you a rundown of the whole process in photos with just a few comments, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel by explaining all the steps I went through.  But, since I’ve decided that I need to be completely (sometimes painfully) honest about our DIY projects, I will be sure to drop a few tidbits that I learned along the way. 

*If you plan to upholster a piece anytime soon, you must check out these awesome tutorials by Little Green Notebook: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, and Step 5.*

First, I snapped a bunch of “before” pictures—mainly so I would have a reference point in case I forgot something important in the middle of everything.  Believe me—once you are in the throes of it all, you might feel slightly disoriented.

Then, I stripped her down to the bare bones.  If you have never done this with a piece of furniture, I encourage you to give it a try.  It’s amazing how often we sit on furniture but have no idea what lurks beneath the surface!  Trust me—it will make for an interesting afternoon!   

To keep things running smoothly, I labeled each piece of old upholstery with a sticky note reminding me which piece was for the back, front, etc. 

After freshening her up with several coats of paint and some poly (for a good protective measure), I came to the point of no return—cutting the fabric.  Eek!  Basically, I just traced the outline of the old upholstery and used that as my guide.  And this is where I made my first big mistake… I thought since I was using a linen fabric with no obvious pattern that I didn’t need to think about the direction of the fabric.  Wrong!  All fabrics have a pattern—or at least a texture—so be sure you don’t let your brain wander during this phase!  Thankfully, I had enough fabric left to cut another piece.  Whew!  It was nip and tuck, but in the end I averted disaster by the skin of my teeth (pardon the gross expression).   Disaster being that my fabric on the seat of the chair would have been horizontal, while the back of the chair would have been vertical.  I know—a harrowing afternoon at the Braham house. 

Once my fabric was cut, I kind of stared at the chair not knowing how to proceed.  I went back and read through the tutorial again, but I still felt a sort of paralysis.  That’s when I started having that odd back and forth conversation in my head about putting on my big girl panties and such… Can you relate?  So I pulled out the stapler and just started in.  After my first few staples were in place, the project took on a life of its own and I just followed suit.  I’ve done enough projects by now to know that I’m never going to be 100% comfortable trying my hand at something new; usually I have to just begin and everything falls into place after that. 

Once I stapled all of the fabric in place, I hot-glued trim around the unfinished edges for a clean look.  Originally I wanted to use nail head trim, but it was pretty expensive, and I actually like the soft finish of the trim I ended up with. 

Now for the confessions… I had read in a tutorial that it’s possible to “damage the integrity of the wood” when stapling.  Sadly, this happened to me while stapling to the back of the chair.  There was a tiny lip that I was stapling into, and some of the wood splintered.  Thankfully, it didn’t compromise the stability of the chair, and since it’s on the back it’s not noticeable.  But still.  It was unfortunate.  I’m not exactly sure how to avoid this, but I imagine a nicer stapler and a tad more care might have helped.  

Can you see it along the right edge?

While we're on the topic of stapling, I must admit that I used the wrong size staple at first.  I thought maybe the wood was just really hard wood...until my husband gently informed me that my staple size was too big--hence the reason they weren't fully penetrating the wood.  It's never just one trip to the hardware store, is it?   

The second (or is this really the third?) confession is that I bought fabric and didn’t like it, so I ended up purchasing different fabric.  Because I always try to do projects on the cheap, I was a little frustrated, but I decided to make pillows out of the original fabric (which will be another “first” for me)—and since the second fabric was on clearance, it wasn’t a huge deal. 

After moving her into the kitchen, I realized that the ugly black fabric on her underside could be seen from certain angles.  I ended up covering the bottom with extra fabric simply by tacking it around the edges. 

A last look…

 

Overall, it was a good experience!  You’ll definitely want to go into it with a large dose of common sense sprinkled with bits of humor and some courage, but this is a project that anyone can tackle.  I mean, people, the internet has all the answers!  Just kidding—kinda. 

What about you guys?  Have you upholstered anything?  Did you freeze when you came to the point of no return?  Do you know of any amazing tutorials floating around in cyberspace?