Done deal.

Yes, it's been eons since I've logged into my blog to update on the project I finished about a month ago (you can read about the project's process in my previous post)...I've been busy being social and enjoying summer (and, let's be real: basking in laziness.) 


But, here it is, the final look at our painted dresser.  An upcoming project on the list is decorating our bedroom. Right now there is a total of one decoration in the entire room. Unbelievable. Why do I prefer all of my lovely decor sitting in boxes in our office? We may never know.

Of the two photos, this is most definitely the truer color for the wall and the dresser.

My favorite part is the stenciling because it's so understated, like the dresser has a secret.

Oh! And here's a little peek at the wedding gift my husband and I made for his sister and her hubby! My hubs made this from wood in the old Millwork District that is currently being converted into loft apartments.  This wood is old and beautiful with tons of character and it was really fun to work with! He did all the hard stuff while I flitted in and out, holding random tools and boards and things--at least until it was finished structurally.  Then I was the sanding and staining and varnishing queen. 

Good thing this was a gift, what an awkward place for a table.

We're hoping there will be "more where that came from" and we'll be starting up a few more projects soon!  There's really something about working with your hands that is just good for the soul.  Maybe it's being able to tangibly see a project progress steadily: the work I put in comes out in a thing, looking fabulous, sometimes where nothing but a pile of wood (or beads, or yarn, or paper) stood before.  It has been quite refreshing to remember how much I like that feeling of tangible progress. Onward to the next crafty DIY adventure!

In Joy,

Danielle

And two became one.

Per the title, you may think I am romantically reflecting upon my marriage to a man who loves me more than I deserve and treats me like royalty.
While this is true, what I'm actually referencing are the DIY dressers we finished about a month ago.  Not as romantic, but just as exciting, especially because for the first 2 1/2 months of living in our home, we lived out of suitcases, laundry baskets, and backpacks in our bedroom.  In case you're wondering, this wasn't barrels of fun.  The only fabulous part of it was once we actually finished the dresser, it felt like we went shopping in our own closets: found SO many things we had forgotten we even owned.


So we started with two dressers that looked like this:

We saw them on Craigslist and drove about 30 minutes to a man's garage, packed with items he had bought at farm sales.  Once we got them in the car and home, we decided it might be nice to stack them on top of each other, so that they stood about 5 feet tall.

We bought two cans of paint in the same color, but one was matte/flat and one was satin.  This was a trick I had frequently wandered upon in pinterest, and thought it might be really nice to have an understated pattern.  So, I ventured out again to buy a stencil and found a Martha Stewart set that had quite a few choices at Michaels.  I also went to Hobby Lobby and came home with two types of knobs, because I really wanted to give the illusion that the top two drawers were "lighter" than the bottom four.  While I didn't get a close-up of what I put on the top two, the textured, circular pulls wer my choice for the bottom drawers:

The first thing we did was sand both of the dressers. Unfortunately at this point in our lives we did not own a sander that you plug into the wall, and had to do it by hand.  No big thang... (except for our fingers cramping up every now and then.)

First came a little bit of latex primer, we used Sherwin-Williams.

Then we started on the color (my favorite part!!)  We used the Dutch Boy color "Preserves" (F-13-1), but when mixed up at Lowe's, we actually ended up with Sherwin-Williams paint--it came out fabulously!  For the dressers (not the drawers) we used the flat paint as the base, and for the drawers, we used the satin paint.  Here's the Hubs working hard at painting, and also at becoming a ghost.

After painting everything and letting it dry overnight, the really fun part was upon us: stenciling.  We chose a stencil that mimics the pattern on our bedspread.  Stenciling definitely took longer and was much more finicky (does anyone except me and your grandma use that word anymore?) than we anticipated.  Between drawers, I tried to wash a little bit of the extra paint off of the stencil and accidentally bent it.  You know what that means?  Paint began slipping under the slightly bent stencil and I had to (very carefully) touch-up/free-hand many sections of the pattern after removing the stencil.  greeeaaaaat. It was definitely a challenge.

We used the flat paint to fill in the stencil, going over the already dry satin drawers.  This means that most of our drawer became matte-looking, but the design itself was glossy. 

At this point, you may "oooh-aah."

After everything had dried, I went through and sanded some of the edges, to finish it off will a bit of an antiqued look.  Oh, and of course we added those cute little knobs.  On the very bottom of the dresser, we added some trim that we had bought.  We had primed and painted this separate of the dresser itself, but really wanted to cover up those ugly feet the dresser came with.  For the top one, we simply unscrewed them and tossed them aside until we find a better use for them. Maybe on some project some day they won't look so out of place.  In order to attach the trim to the dresser, we used wood glue..super easy!

Upside-down dresser with a little trim-flair on it's base.

The final piece was attaching the two short dresses to make one grand dresser. The Hubs simply stacked them and used two brackets with nails on the backside of the dresser to make sure they stayed sturdy. Easy, peasy (for him...he's good at this stuff and I'm learning slowly.)

We finished this project within a week, working on it for a few hours every other night.  Not a huge undertaking, but a HUGE improvement to the state of our bedroom.  We love, love, LOVE it in our room, especially during the day when sun floods in through the large windows onto this lovely piece.  

Ready for the unfortunate part? I have no pictures of how awesome this looks in our bedroom.  SO...stay tuned, the best is yet to come.

Love,

Danielle