Coral Dresser for the Nursery

She's DONE!!!

Excuse the tarp and the deck... This is most likely where she will stay until we move in a month or so (still working on where we are moving to...) with the tarp over top (and covered by our awning) in case of rain. 

Isn't she pretty?!?! I'm kind of in love. Well, not kind of. Seriously. Seriously in love.

Here's a quick before and after before we get in to the nitty gritty.

Here's my original post about the dresser progress. I might recap a little bit here too... We started out with my $100 Craigslist find. The brass knobs were a worn dark brown and there were quite a few scratches and nicks. 

After sanding...

And after priming...

It was time for paint! I chose the color Youthful Coral from Behr and got a pint in the Interior Semi-Gloss Enamel (and No-VOC for the nursery). I mostly used the 1.5 and 3 inch brushes. I splurged a bit and bought the Purdy brushes, since I'd heard they were such good quality and helped show less brush strokes. There were still a few visible brush strokes, but only if you got close after 3+ coats.

First coat...

Second coat...

Third coat...

Touch ups on the top (fourth coat)... I used a small foam roller for the top on the third coat, but it didn't cover as nicely as I liked, so I used the large brush to do one good final coat and it turned out great.

Next up was attacking those knobs. I had heard about Brasso from this blog (and one of my inspiration dressers) and it worked like a charm! I enlisted Zach to help me polish up the handles since I heard it was really smelly and didn't want to be around it in my "condition." :) It probably took about an hour to get all six of the long drawer handles (and various pieces) polished. Not easy work and a lot of scrubbing, but for $2 and a little elbow grease it was well worth it! Check out the difference it made.

I could not handle the ring knobs on the middle drawers though. They kept reminding me of the nose rings that you would see on a bull. Even when they were spruced up. No thanks. So for the middle drawer knobs, I bought two sets of three each while I was in Arizona at Hobby Lobby (similar to these ones and these ones from Anthro). The knobs at Hobby Lobby are so much more reasonably priced and they have a lot of the same styles as Anthropologie. They cost around $3.99 each, but were 50% off when I bought them! I decided on the white flower shaped knobs because they looked awesome and the aqua polka dots were a little too much with the coral dresser. Plus, the white flower shaped knobs matched the flower design on the original knobs.

I did end up leaving the base part from the original ring shaped pulls. I liked the flower shape and it made it so I didn't have to do any hard core sanding and/or refilling of the grooves that they left on the drawer fronts.

I also decided to paint over the brass decals that were along the bottom. I originally had the two squares on either side taped off, but didn't like the hard contrast once the rest of the dresser was painted. I like them painted the same color much better - still keeps the detail, but doesn't distract from the rest of the dresser's fun details.

You may notice that she has a middle leg, which I kind of forgot to paint (see it in the picture below? Still brown. Oops!). I don't know if I could have reached it even if I did remember it, but I think I'm going to be lazy and just leave it for now. Unless I can convince my lovely husband to get down there and give it a quick coat or two. Obviously it's not super noticeable or else I would have done it in the first place! Haha.

I was also thinking about doing a top coat of polyurethane to really seal and protect the piece, but the enamel semi-gloss is pretty sturdy and I think it should hold up well. At least for now. Honestly, I'm so glad I'm done with this piece now and that I started when I did because I am getting so uncomfortable. To have to bend over and paint any more would not be fun. I was getting really out of breath towards the end! Especially since I was fully clothed, gloved and had my surgeon-grade face mask on (safety first!).

The only thing I still want to do is get some fun paper to line the drawers. Maybe a fun pattern or even some pretty florals? I'll be sure to post an update when I get around to it!

I'm so pleased with how it turned out! I think it will look amazing in the nursery (which I can't wait to get all set up!). Here's another before and after just for funsies. I love seeing the dramatic change. So much fun.

What are you working on these days? Any fun DIY projects? I feel like I'm in full on nesting mode right now and want to make a ton of stuff! Next up for me is a DIY pouf ottoman!