Spencer's 'New' Dresser

Picture it: the winter before Tess was born.

Time was running out before Spencer was going to be moved out of the upstairs room he shared with Josh and down into the basement bedroom.  We had a bed for him but no other furniture.

Not having any luck finding any decently built/priced dressers and nightstands around town, I happened upon a decent set on Target.com.  They had good reviews and were in my price range.  I bought them.

However, my pregnancy-addled brain forgot one thing: measurements.

The dresser?  Tiny.  Seriously, so small.  I'm not sure who would ever buy a dresser its size, unless they bought it online without any thought to measurement.  *ahem*  The poor child could barely fit half his wardrobe into the three tiny drawers.

So around eight or nine months ago I finally started to seriously look for a new dresser.  I found a good one on Craigslist (love it!!); solid wood and only $40.  My kind of price.  However, it definitley needed some love.

So I bought it.  And then let it sit in the garage for 6 months because it was dang cold out there!  So this spring I finally got to work on it.  First I had to remove those awful Lincoln Logs-inspired handles.  Seriously, they were ugly.  Then I had to sand the whole thing. (It needed a good sanding - lots of dings and nicks and such that would look bad under paint but disappear if sanded.)  There was some sort of crazy 50 year old varnish on this thing that made it a beast to sand, even with our rotary sander.

Once I sanded it I had to decide on colors.  Spencer wanted a BYU-themed dresser, complete with Ys and Cougars.  I bleed blue just as much as the next Cougar fan, but not on my decor.  We compromised with a blue and white color scheme.  (True story: got my white paint for free with some random Lowe's coupon I found in a magazine.  Score!)

Then I had to find the right hardware.  Right meaning not completely cheap but not costing an arm and a leg. I looked and looked and couldn't find anything and then my wonderful friend Deidra said "Why don't you look on eBay?" and I was like "DUH Maren!"  So I did and I found these awesome bad boys for a little less than $2 apiece.

I finally finished the dresser this evening.  Behold!

It looks a little ombre-ish, but that's just the lighting.  Here's a pic that used a flash, so it has that white dot in the center but the color is a bit more true.  (This is what happens when you try to take pictures in your garage in the evening.)

I like it.  It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed doing it.  I learned a lot.  (Like, for instance, just how much patience Lance has in letting me put a big ol' dresser that takes up a ton of room in our garage for 8 months.)  I'd be willing to do it again, just not any time soon.  (I have approximately 837 other projects I need to get done first.)

Here's a before/after comparison:

True story: just after I finished taking a final picture of the dresser, Tess came in and pounded the side with a rock. Because, you know, that's what we let our children do around here: hit furniture with rocks.  Oy.  (Don't worry - I bit my tongue and did a little touch-up painting.) ((And then swore to get even with her some day.  Watch out, future Tess!!))