Bedroom Progress Part II – The Desser Renew

Let’s start off from where we left in the Bedroom Progress Part I post, with the dresser that we moved from my bedroom into Olive’s room.  Here’s a before shot to refresh your memory:

That dresser was painted white and green back when I was in college about 10 years ago, so it’s certainly been good to us, but was definitely in need of a little TLC before I could bring myself to move it into Olive’s room (you know, because we want the best for our babies that we love so much).  I’ll go on ahead and show you the big reveal and then follow with some how-I-did-it progress pics.

So here’s how it looks now, sittin’ all pretty:

Just precious!  I’ve been itching to paint dresser hardware ever since I saw a similarly painted one in my sister-in-law’s (hey Terrah, if you’re reading) daughter’s room about a year ago.  Hers is painted white with turquoise hardware and is pretty much the inspiration behind the design for this dresser.

The process was pretty simple.  I just removed all the hardware and the drawers.  Sanded everything down to remove as much of the previous layers of paint that I could, primed, then painted.  I don’t have a true before picture, I sometimes forget about taking one until after I’m already knee-deep into projectdom.  So here’s how things looked after the sanding and priming, with one layer of white paint already slapped on:

You can see primer in the areas that were eventually painted pink, and you may have noticed in the pic of the drawers that one little hardware pull is still intact.  That little bad-boy would not come out!  I think I actually superglued it in there at some point, but one little bump in the road wasn’t going to stop me from gettin’er done!

After painting 3 layers of paint on the dresser and the drawers, it was time to get busy on taping things off so I could spray paint the areas I wanted pink (after everything was thoroughly dry of course):  

After taping of the edges, I then covered all of the larger exposed areas with butcher paper:

By the way, that blue tape that I used was well worth it’s $7 plus price tag.  It promised to create a perfect seal to prevent any paint from leaking in and it delivered on its promise!  It has a different texture than the “plain” blue tape and even the green tape I often use, it was more slick and vinyl-like, kind of like the way a sheer band-aid feels.

Anyhow, moving right along… After taping, papering, and sealing everything off, a-spray-painting I went:

OK, so yea, laying down a drop-cloth might have been a good idea, but I actually kind of don’t mind getting paint on the concrete outside.  It’s kind of my way of showing off my battle-wounds so to speak… yea, I’m a little weird like that.

And finally, I removed all the paper and tape after applying three nice and even layers of spray-paint, put all the hardware back in place, to reveal the most beautiful seems my eyes have ever seen:

I just love it, and Olive does too!  Let’s take one more look at the finished product:

AHHH, there’s something so rewarding about finishing up a little project like this, especially when you’re doing it for a child of your own.  Have any of you been painting any furniture lately?  Moving things around? Spring cleaning? Do tell

Linked up to:

Miss Mustard Seed

click the button below to check out furniture projects from other bloggers!

&

 i heart organizing

click the button below to check out spray painting projects from other bloggers!

Bedroom Progress Part I – Clothing and Closets and Dressers, oh my!

In my frenzied attempt at spring cleaning this year, there wasn’t any sweeping, scrubbing, sterilizing or any type of washing of sorts, instead it was a much more cathartic type of cleansing involving paring down and purging, namely in the clothing department.  What at first seemed to be a quick and painless process began with me purging away everything I never wear, what doesn’t fit me anymore or that is just way too old to keep holding onto.   After hitting my closet hard - filling an entire 13 gallon trash bag – I hit my dresser and hanging cubbies in Rob’s closet, filling yet another 13 gallon trash bag full of donations, and setting aside a pile of skinny jeans that I handed down to my niece.  HOORAY for getting rid of things!!  So that was it, I was done with my spring cleaning for the year!

… yeah, not quite.

In anticipation for this purgation, I actually bought a tall, seven drawer dresser from the Salvation Army a couple of weeks prior, which after putting the remaining items that didn’t get exiled into their proper place within the “new”dresser, there was quite a bit of room left in the “old” long dresser.  This got me thinking… perhaps Rob and I can share this one long dresser and we can move the less long dresser that Rob uses into Olive’s room.  Yeah, that sounded like a fantastic idea!  So the process of purging away with my own things curtailed into an even bigger reorganization project in Olive’s room – tackling her closet and overall clothing storage system!  Yes, this wasn’t just a matter of moving a dresser from our room into hers, it would involve much more than that.  So hang on to your boots, here’s how it all went down:

WOW, whatamess!  Toys and stuffed animals spilling over, clothing piling up, and baby items still in the closet!  Getting around to cleaning up this mess was long overdue.  So I started by removing everything to the right side of the closet, which was mostly stuffed animals and toys:

AHHH, a nice, clean slate. 

Next, Olive helped me decide what to keep and what to give away (had I been doing this by myself, without Olive’s “help,” a lot more would have landed in the donation bag, but she did a pretty good job for a 5- year-old if I do say so myself.)

The next step was emptying out her little armoire that, let’s face it, she’s beginning to outgrow (sad face).

All the clothing items that were housed in the armoire pictured above will now make their way into her “new” dresser.  Luckily though, that little armoire fits right into her closet so it has been upcycled into an actual vanity that will house her jewelry, make-up, nail polish, and hair stuff that was beginning to outpour from their current storage place:

 How perfectly cute is that!  And there’s just enough room for the drawers to pull out:

After moving that bad boy into the closet, I then began to pull out all of Olive’s clothing that no longer fit her, etc.:

WOO HOO, another donation bag!  (Well sort of, I still need to sift through it to determine what will actually get donated and what we will hang onto for hand-me-downs for Hazel, but at least they’re out of the closet!)

It’s kind of hard to get good, wide pictures inside the closet, but here are a few shots of how things are looking as of right now:

To the right side of the closet is her vanity along with some keep-sakes and hand-me-downs hanging on the rod above:

 To the left are her everyday wear hanging clothing on the bottom rod, dress-up and dressy dresses on the top rod, and her shoes, which I plan on finding a better storage solution for soon:

And front and center are clothing for the upcoming fall and winter in the top cubby, pants, shorts and leggings in the middle cubbies and a bin for her purses and bags on the very bottom:

WHEW! … and that’s only the half of it (hence the post title containing “part I”).  I just couldn’t bear moving the dresser from our room into hers in the condition that it was in.  Here’s probably one of the only before shots that I have of it, it’s the white and green dresser to the left:

I painted it, oh about 10 years ago, so needless to say, it was in much need of a face-lift.  More details on that to follow…

So what kind of spring cleaning, or cleaning of your closets have you all been up to?  Do tell!

Nursery Tree Mural & Armoire Renew

So it’s been over a year since these two projects were completed, but I am just now getting around to posting about them – better late than never, right!

Check out more on the tree mural here, and more on the armoire here.  Enjoy, and thank you for looking:)