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! 

A Dresser for the Nursery - Progress

I bought a dresser for the nursery about a month ago for $100 on Craigslist. I'd been looking for a while to find the perfect one, something similar to this one, this one or especially this one. I knew I wanted a long dresser with plenty of storage (for all those cute little socks and onesies!) and some kind of interesting detail. I found just that with this beauty. 

She's solid wood, dovetailed and in pretty darn good condition. I love the detail along the top and the bottom and the inlaid wood. Along the bottom, there is even a little bit of brass detailing. 

I'm a little on the fence about the hardware. They are swinging pulls and I'm afraid they might be a little noisy? I'm definitely not into the round ones in the middle, but I think I might stick with the long handled pulls. They just need some gussying up. We will see. 

The top had some scratches, but nothing a little sanding couldn't cure.

 

On Memorial Day I got to work and started sanding. And then priming. After taking off the hardware, it took me a good 4 hours to get the whole thing sanded and primed (with a few necessary prego breaks in between). 

Next step is paint! I decided on a coral color called Youthful Coral from Behr and I'm ready to go. Can't wait to get the first coat on!

Have you been painting any furniture lately? Dressers? Nightstands? What colors? Please share!

Craft Day - David, Mitts and El Rudolpho

A while back, my friends Kim, Shan and I had Craft Day! Craft Day is a tradition we started a few years back where we get together and do crafty things. We've done Christmas crafts and Halloween crafts in the past, but this time there was a theme of spray paint. Kim spray painted her $20 David head (see her blog post all about it here) and I worked on my $1 reindeer from Goodwill. Shan brought her mitts (she was knitting) and they turned out great! I actually used the pattern on a couple knitting projects lately...

Here's Kim's David that she scored when we went to Pacific Galleries a few months back. It was a big debate between aqua or yellow. I think she made the right choice!

As for El Rudolpho, I got him at Goodwill for a dollar. Not too shabby. He was covered in some lovely mod podge Christmas fabric. Now I love me some Christmas, but I was not digging the fabric look.

The mod podged fabric had some wrinkles, but I didn't mind and decided to just spray paint over it. Unfortunately I learned the hard way to use primer! Luckily Kim let me borrow some of her white. :) You can see how the red isn't covering as well without primer.

You can also see that it looked like a war zone out there. After some primer, El Rudolpho was doing much better. The flat Rustoleum enamel in white worked really well as primer. Overall I think I did 2-3 coats of red, then two coats of primer, then 2-3 more coats of red (obviously if I did this next time I would leave out the first couple coats of red and start with primer:). 

I love how El Rudolpho turned out and can't wait to decorate with him for Christmas! You can definitely see the fabric outlines through the paint, but I actually like it. It looks more like a paper mache reindeer instead of just flat and smooth. 

Total project cost: Less than $5! Booyah!

For some reason I'm really into reindeers this year... so get ready for another reindeer DIY coming up!

PS I got a Facebook page for my blog! Check it out and like me to follow my posts!

Gettin' Our Bob Ross On

We had a blast painting one of our favorite landscapes last weekend - the Seattle skyline (although it didn't have any trees or little squirrels). Painting, combined with wine (and healthy appreciation for mustaches - ahem, Colleen, ahem) made for an awesome night at Canvas! - a paint & sip studio in downtown Kirkland! I'd been wanting to go for a while now and even though I'm not the best artist (I'm no Bob Ross - definitely far from it) I love being crafty and creative. 

We had Thai food before we went and then wandered down to the Kirkland waterfront for a quick photo. Sutira turned me on to Thai Iced Coffee! Have you had it? You MUST try it. It. Is. Amazing. I already decided I have to order it every time I have Thai food from now on. It's that good. Think sweetened (and strong) coffee with a dash of heavy cream on top (I never said it was the healthiest thing on the menu).

I really hope that is not a cat on a leash behind us in the above photo... kinda looks like it, no?

On to the wine and painting! It's a little spendy coming in at $40, but Sutira found a living social deal that ended up being about $27/each for a party of four! The deal included two bottles of wine between the four of us and painting, so it wasn't a bad deal at all. Plus, it's more for the experience, right?! And I'm all about experiences. 

We were the first ones there at 6:30, which meant we got the best spot with a view of the instructor. They had very light appetizers (think chips, salsa, grapes, cheese + crackers, pound cake) and a bar with beer and wine. Since we had wine included in our deal, I'm not sure if you have to pay extra to get a drink or not beyond the $40 regular price.

They give you four paintbrushes in various sizes, then you fill up on all your paint. The instructor then teaches you step by step how to paint! It's like a grown up paint by numbers. Pretty awesome. And as you can see, all of our paintings turned out pretty darn amazing (ifidosaysomyself).

Getting our paint on! Colleen is not impressed...

Ready to paint!

The sweet set up (Rule #1: Don't mistake your wine glass for the water glass to clean your paintbrush).

I don't remember what was so funny... but we sure had fun!

Here's a bigger and more elaborate version of what we were painting.

On all the walls they had inspiration of all the different painting they teach. You could actually paint whatever you wanted, but we all figured it would be better to just stick with the instructor. :)

Me and my masterpiece! Yes, my space needle is ginormous (that's what he said?). I just wanted to make sure if was the focal point... totally planned it that way. :)

Sutira and Colleen.

Colleen's masterpiece (can you spot the mustaches?).

Sometimes you just have to turn is upside down.

Ellie's masterpiece.

And here's Sutira's masterpiece already up on the wall at her place!

The whole group!

The whole process went surprisingly smooth since the instructor gives you each step. When you layer all the different pieces like they show you, it's actually pretty easy! Although, with two doctors-to-be and an accountant in our group you probably won't be surprised that we were the last group to finish up our paintings (perfectionists, much?!).

We had a blast, and I would highly recommend going if you want something fun to do with a group (and have the bones to spend). There was even a bachelorette party painting right next to us! I know there are a few other similar places around the Seattle area, too.

And one more time because we did so awesome.

Have you ever been to a place like this? If so, what did you paint? Did you find it easy? Challenging? Frustrating? Do tell!