Dual Purpose Dresser

I found this dresser several months ago at Impact thrift store in Hatboro, PA.  The brass handles and its exceptional curve appeal (ha!) are what drew me to this beauty.  When I inspected the dresser, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found -- solid wood, in great condition, the insides of the drawers were clean and spacious and the price was oh-so-right! 



i scored this dresser on sale for $36.  it just doesn't get any better :)



This baby had to be mine all mine.  And speaking of baby, I thought of an idea which justified why the dresser was coming home with me.  I've been searching for a dresser for our office, a.k.a. future baby room, for a long time.  The criteria for the dresser is that it has to work well in our office and also serve double duty for our future plans for the space. 

So, this dresser will not only fulfill my immediate need for storage in the office, it will also serve as a changing table when the time comes. 

Here are some examples of DIY changing tables I found on the internet:  



via Kelly Rae Roberts



via BABY Lifestyles



via Swanky Baby



If you find a dresser for a mere $36 in perfect condition and it happens to satisfy your specific design taste as is, I'd consider you INCREDIBLY LUCKY!  And since I'm NOT one of those people, although scored for a great price, this dresser needed a lot of TLC. 

Here's what I did...

First step was to strip the current paint (several layers actually) off the dresser.  I used Klean-Strip Stripper (shown below).  This is an extremely toxic product so it's important to follow the directions carefully for proper use and disposal.

About five minutes after application, you'll notice the paint begining to curdle.  After waiting about 10 minutes, I used a metal putty knife to scrape the curdled paint from the dresser. 

pretty crazy stuff, huh?  this has to be one of the more toxic products i've used to date.  i performed this step in my garage with the door wide open for plenty of ventilation.

Next, I performed my first step of applying the stripper two more times.  Depending on how many coats of paint your piece of furniture has on it, you may need to apply the stripper more or less. 

this is what the top of my dresser looked like after applying and scraping one coat of the stripper.

this photo shows some of the progress I made while stripping the paint.

Then, once I removed most of the paint from the larger, flatter surfaces it was time to work on removing the paint from the hard to reach areas.  For hard-to-scrape areas, such as the intricate wood work on the dresser's leg shown below, I used an old toothbrush and the head of a pen to scrape the paint off. 

Next up, I sanded all surfaces with a rough sand paper.  Then, I sanded the dresser with a softer sand paper that left the dresser with a nice, smooth-to-the-touch feeling. 

sanded (left) versus unsanded (right)

Finally, I finished the dresser and made it custom to my specific design taste. I painted the outer surfaces (except for the top) with three coats of Minwax PolyShades - Mahogony, left over from my powder room makeover.  This product is great because it has Polyurethane in it, a protective top coat great for furniture, so it saves you a painting step at the end. 

As for the top of the dresser, I painted one coat of Zinsser's top coat, and two coats of high-gloss white.   My inspiration to paint the top white came from this beautiful dresser, which is also a DIY project.

via Young House Love

I wrapped this project up by painting a protective layer of  Polycrylic on the top of the dresser.  And the finale:

close-up of the brass handles

intricate wood work on the dresser's legs

how awesome is this top drawer with the dividers?  i love it.

this dresser is the perfect storage solution i needed

i chose a high-gloss white for the top because i love the modern, sleek look of it.

Updating a Fireplace

I recently wrote about what I was planning to paint with the Minwax Wood Stain I have left over from our powder room makeover.  One of the items on my list was a trash picked Poang Ikea chair that I couldn't wait to spruce up - check it out here. 

Rob had the fan-tabulous idea of staining the mantle above the fireplace.  Since our dated mantle made me feel so empty inside, I jumped right on that project. 

Fireplace mantle before the wood stain:

Fireplace mantle after the wood stain was applied:

Much better.  Wouldn't you agree?  But there's still something missing.  I think we need to add a focal point to the wall - the fireplace as is and the wood stain (as nice as it came out) just isn't enough.  We're going to add a backsplash around the fireplace - YIPPEE! 

Ok, don't laugh.  This is my attempt to edit a photo, which I have no experience in.  I totally used Microsoft's "Paint," ha! I can only imagine how wonderful Photoshop is. 

This is where I need your help.  We're going to add a backsplash around the fireplace, as shown in the image above, but we're having a hard time chosing the right tile.  Please help!

We've narrowed it down to four choices.  And here they are...

#1 

#2

#3

#4

I'm really excited about this project beacause it's a super easy one that will make a big impact in our family room.  We want to chose a backsplash we'll love for years to come and something that will look amazing!!! 

So let 'er rip.  What do you think?

Revamp an IKEA Chair

Two years ago this Poang IKEA chair was on the curb outside of someones house, hours away from being trashed.  I pulled over and quickly shoved the chair into my teeny Toyota Celica and drove home. When I got the chair home, I was able to take a closer look at its condition. Aside from a missing screw and minor wear and tear, the chair was prestine. By bleaching the fabric cover and with a new screw I had a new comfy chair.

Here's how the chair looked in my home...

I was stoked about my curb side find and I've been very happy with the chair, but I recently got an itch to spruce it up a bit.  With several coats of wood stain left over from my powder room makeover, I was able to change the look of the chair to this... 

It's been awhile since Roxy has made her way into my pictures.  But on this day, she wasn't moving for anything.  Since I think she's so cute, I let her sit right in the middle of my picture. 

 

See how nice the chair took to the stain.

Here's some pictures of what I did...it was so easy!

This is what the wood looked like before I stained it.

Here's a super close-up of the wood while I was sanding.  In order for the wood to absorb the stain properly, it's important that you use a rough sandpaper to take off any protective coating from the wood. 



I took the chair apart to make painting the base easy breezy.

 

Here's the base of the chair as I began to paint the first coat of wood stain.  I painted a total of three coats, allowing each coat to dry overnight. 

Don't you think the dark wood looks so much better?

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Wood Stain

Since I hardly put a dent in the wood stain I bought to paint the vanity in our powder room, and because I want to get my monies worth, I decided to put the dark mahogany Minwax stain to good use. 

I'm currently working to spruce up the an old chair (that I trash picked) and our fireplace.  Below is what my chair and fireplace currently look like.  As you can see...in desperate need of some love. 

I'll share the "after" images in just a of couple days!  Stay tuned. 

Powder Room Heaven

On December 18, I received a call at work from Rob.  He said, "Guess what I did?"  I thought maybe he took my chair to get reupholstered.  "What babe?" I asked.  Rob responded, "I just took an ax to the bathroom and it's completely gutted.  Toilet and all!" 

If you're not an enthusiastic DIY couple like us I'm pretty sure this news would be terrifying to hear.  And especially if you had no ideas or plans for what you wanted to do with it.  But me, I was excited.  My only wish is that Rob's timing for his random act of demolition hadn't come one week before Christmas and three weeks before a baby shower was being thrown at our home. 

We briefly talked about redoing this bathroom, but NOTHING was definite and we never discussed timing.  So, although I was excited to hear the news, I was also stressed because we had no idea what we were going to do.  But knowing you have 20 plus people coming to your home in less than three weeks for a party is a good way to kick your butt into mega work mode.  We devised a plan really fast. 

Here's what our bathroom looked like on the morning of Dec. 18th.  I took this picture with my old iPhone during our final walk through in Aug. 2009 - so I apologize for the quality.

And this is what the bathroom looked like after demolition.

But now, our bathroom looks like this.  Heavenly.

The inspiration for this bathroom came from several different images.  To see my inspiration images check out the Inspire Me page.

Xylem manufactures the white Marble counter top.  I ordered it from FaucetDirect.com on a Wednesday and had it in my living room by Monday - I'm an extremely happy customer.  Most local retail stores could have ordered this for me but the average delivery time was 2-3 weeks.

The light fixture is from Home Depot.  It's more modern and attractive than I thought it'd be.

The mirror is Martha Stewart

The knobs are a nice touch that we added on the vanity doors.

This is where the old toilet used to be.

It's a stinky job - but somebody had to do it

And this is our new and improved, slow closing lid and comfort height, Kohler toilet.

I purchased the picture frame above the toilet at a local thrift store

I want to tell you about some of the things we did to our bathroom...

Below is a picture I took when I was setting the tile.  That's correct, when "I" was setting the tile :) .  We both agreed that I'd be the best person for the job because I'm the more detail oriented one.  And when you set tile you have to make sure you get the lines extremely straight, otherwise the imperfections will show when you grout. 

We were lucky because the floor was cement and level.  If the floor had been wood we would've had to lay sheets of cement to create a hard surface and level it out.  We simply mixed up thinset and then I applied it straight to the cement floor with a trowel, shown below. 

As I set the tile in the thinset, I placed spacers in between the tiles to help assist me in getting perfectly straight lines.  The spacers helped - especially because sometimes the tiles can shift as they're drying.

Once the tile was set and dry and the counter top was installed, it was time for me to apply the glass tile backsplash.  These tiles were super easy to work with and thank goodness they can be purchaed on square foot sheets, otherwise I would've never attempted this backsplash. 

I used the same thinset and trowel that I used to set the tile on the floor.  We used nine sq.ft. of  tile for the back wall and about one and a half for each of the side walls.  When the tile was set and dry, we grouted with a sandless white mixture.

I decided to keep the vanity we had and stain it a dark mahogany.  It took some convincing on my part to get Rob to agree to this, since he really wanted to buy a brand new one.  But once he priced out a few vanities he realized  how much money we could save and quickly jumped on the thrifty boat. 

To achieve the dark mahagony vanity we envisioned, first I sanded all the wood with 220 grit sandpaper.  When I was finished sanding I used a tact cloth to thoroughly wipe the wooden doors and vanity base.  Tact cloths are great for removing teeny dust and dirt particles that can ruin a paint job if left on.

I used a MINWAX wood stain and conditioner on the vanity.  The wood conditioner is great for preparing your wood for stain and it helps you apply even coats of stain onto the surface.  I chose a wood stain with Polyurethane already in it - this was a super time saver and allowed me to skip a crucial and important painting step. 

You should invest in a higher end brush made especially for oil paints, finishes and stains because it will hold up longer and is easier to clean.

This shows how our Maple doors looked after just one coat of Bombay Mahogany wood stain.  I painted four coats of stain, allowing each coat to dry for five hours, before I achieved the look I wanted.  Notice how there are no knobs on the doors?  Rob installed the silver knobs onto the doors.

My original plan was to stencil this design on the powder room walls and fill in with a high gloss paint, but unfortunately the time crunch got the best of me. 

Plan B?  I had a large gold picture frame in the closet that I bought for $10 in a thrift shop.  Is gold making a come back?  Since I didn't have time to paint the stencil, I decided to add a piece of patterned fabric into the picture frame.  The fabric was on super sale at JOANN for $4.

And that concludes this long tutorial.  I hope you enjoy the "after" images as much as we love how it all turned out.

If you saw something in these pictures that you have a question about please, please feel free to shoot me an email - I'd be happy to hear what you have to say (good or bad) and answer your questions. 

Thanks again for stopping by and checking out my latest DIY project.  Good night!

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