Dresser refurbish

I'm so pleased to bring you my latest bit of hard work.

A dresser for Princess.

This old yard sale dresser turned out to be a good size for the spot in the girls room where I needed the dresser to go.  It had seen decades of use, however, and needed some attention. 

I got it with the intention of sanding a little and painting it white.

When I sanded for over an hour and only got part of one drawer front tackled, I knew I should rethink my plan.  It turns out that the dresser had about 7 layers of gummy latex paint (in some pretty entertaining colors, I might add).  One treasure, about three layers down, even revealed a landscape motif with a little hand-painted dog and flowers and such.  

I decided to strip the wood of everything.

I like this gel.  You can use it indoors or out (I did both) because it doesn't have harmful fumes.

You brush it on pretty thickly and wait.  It bubbles up and the kids thought it was so cool.

Then take a scraper and... 

Voila!

At the bare wood I saw a trace of an earlier trim piece maybe?  I kept getting curious about its history.

The drawer fronts weren't too terrible.  One layer of gel, scrape, clean up the edges later with sandpaper.

The dresser shell was a different story.  Once I started on the top I was pretty nervous.  It was TOUGH as nails.  I really considered giving up at this point.

But I didn't.  I just kept gelling and scraping and sanding and scraping.

Finally scraped and stripped as much as I thought I could without going to the loony bin.

Here she is halfway through priming.

All total I did 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint, 2 coats of Polycrylic clear coat.

Here she is, with girly glass knobs, in all her glory!

Before the clear top coats I lightly distressed.  The girls' bed is the same way, so it made sense.

 LOVE

Edited to add:

Project details:

I used half a quart can of KILZ primer/stain blocker to prime.
I used two cans of Rustoleum 2X coverage white spray paint.
I used 80, 180 and 220 grit sandpaper for the different levels of work.  The fine stuff was used between every primer and paint layer.
I used 1/3 of a quart of Minwax Polycrylic
I got the knobs on eBay - set of 10 for $16.99.

Due to the mirror, here's a bit of a sneak peek to the girls' room.


For the complete room, read HERE.

Linking to Not Just a Housewife

Room by room - living room + gallery wall

I present to you my 95% finished gallery wall.  What a labor of love this was!

But it's our new favorite spot in the house and it was worth every minute of waiting.

As my sister said, it took a new wall treatment, selling a house and buying another for me to have this wall  I dreamed of WAYYY back in January/February. Read about the OLD living room re-do here.

So, plans for this new wall started when we sold the Magna house.  I planned to fill our home with things of great meaning. Substance and significance over fluff.  To me, the living room was the most important place to do that.

I knew the kids would be emotional about leaving the place they knew, so I scheduled family pictures to be taken at a park near our house in May.  I wanted those to be displayed in the new place so they could remember "home".  As a ridiculously sentimental person, I also wanted to fill the room with other elements with emotional weight to them.

I gathered frames, pinned to Pinterest boards, decided on sizes, printed the photos, shopped for a monogram, and made a sign board.

Strider took each frame and traced the shape onto paper so we could make decisions without making nail holes.  Since the day we moved in, we hung this clock on an existing nail in the wall.  It was off-center, but so was the couch.  After planning out the placement of the frames we chose to use the clock spot as a starting point and grow outward from there.

The first frame to go up was the huge one - 20"x24".  I love it.  I have had this since the beginning of the year, folks.  We lovingly wrapped it and brought it here with us just to be used right here.

Strider meticulously worked to get everything placed correctly.  My plan was not too matchy, but balanced.  Not centered but evenly spaced.  Kinda planned and kinda haphazard.

I got so excited as it came together.

Here is the masterpiece.  

Now, at the top of the post I indicated that this was 95% finished.  See the two pictures of skeleton keys?  Those will be replaced with actual keys once my glass knobs arrive.  They'll hang from ribbon.  For now, just pretend it's finished.  I'm too impatient not to show you.

The next piece of significant decor is the temple picture.  We live 3 blocks from this temple and see it every day.  I found this watercolor painting in the first shopping trip down main street that I took with the kids, about a week after moving in.  It was $16 at a little boutique and I love it.  It will sit in our living room to remind us why family is so important.   

Here is the monogram.  $5 at Hobby Lobby.

Here is the clock that I made (and personalized) at a RS activity years ago.

Here is the spot where the keys will be, and our numeral 7.  For 7 family members.  There will be a large key and a small key, each representing a house for our family.  I'll label them with the house numbers.

I made this sign last week.  My first craft in months!  It was fun and the message is spot on.  Perfect reminder for me.

Here are my silly kids at that family photo shoot, along with a monogram from my sister Wendy and a vase/pot that my little brother Matt made for me in high school pottery class.

Here is inside the front door, where we enter every day and now we smile each time we see that awesome wall.

A room filled with meaning and significance.  I think we nailed it.

Check out other rooms in our new place:

Laundry Room

Girls Room

Dining Room

I'll be more careful

I'm good at making lists.

I'm really good at making lists for me.

And I'm super good at making lists for my family.

I like to be productive and see what I (they) need to accomplish all in one spot.

So I'd like to say that after reading this story, I will think twice before asking hubs to do things I need. You never know what might happen.

I'm drowning!

Do you ever whine about something because the system is just not working for you, then have Prince Charming come along with great ideas and lots of enthusiasm and do all this work and change the very thing you whined about and now you don't know if you are any happier?

You see...

Because we decided to do this:

I am left with wondering what to do with this:


I have had sudden streaks of brilliance over the last few weeks (yeah right) and I have been really frustrated that I have no craft/scrap area I can work in. Every time I want to scrapbook or make cards I have to haul out all my stuff and make a mess, blah blah blah. I know, poor me. We had the space; it just wasn't being used right. It dawned on us that the computer was in the hall where we have the huge desk and all the scrap stuff is thrown in the corner of the family room and piled all over the small desk you can't see anyway. So hubs got busy on Labor Day afternoon and ran the phone line downstairs, and drilled and drilled and moved and hooked up and cleaned.

I enjoy the new computer spot. Still getting used to being down in the corner, but I think I like it. Turns out I am spending 1000% more time down here, as it used to be the "kid spot" and ignored a LOT. But now it is clean (well, two days so far) and organized (thanks to Strider, not me) and I can "play" with my stuff alongside the kids.

But the upstairs is depressing! I have not had the time yet to organize all my billion supplies, and it wasn't even cleaned before the switchover, so I have dreams of scrapping up a storm, but that storm seems very far away.

Any tips on totally rearranging a brand new space that I'm spoiled with but too grumpy to tackle?

To join in the WFMW fun, visit Rocks in my Dryer.

When is enough enough?

Pondering questions...

Balance. The answer to happiness in the life of a woman, right?

Is that painting with too broad of a brush?

Since our work is never done, when are we finished with anything?


If the laundry hampers are never empty and the dishes are being dirtied as I wash them then when do I know I have done enough?

When my husband finishes a full, exhausting day at school, teaching and moulding young minds, he works for an extra hour or two and drives home. He then becomes a dad, and assumes all of those responsibilities, as well as church assignments and hopefully a bit of relaxation.

My life does not have compartments. I do not turn off being one thing and drive to another. So while I revel in the flexibility of my days, I also struggle with the challenge of knowing when I have done enough. I have a love affair with to-do lists; mostly the sense of accomplishment that comes from crossing things off. Being finished.

When can I watch a show on TV without feeling the guilt pulling me from the bedroom into the kitchen? Or how do I feel good about diving into that book on my nightstand while there are two loads of clothes wrinkling in their respective baskets?

I want that little "Hey slacker! You haven't earned a vacation yet" voice in my head to shut off sometimes. Once in a while can't a girl have a tired, lazy day?

Sherri Dew, former RS leader and revered author once said :"We no longer have the luxury of spending our energy on anything that does not lead us and our families to Christ."

Hello? Anyone else feel the need to jump headfirst into the guilt pool with me?

I conciously try to make wiggle room in my life. I like not being busy. Some people work better that way. Some need to be busy. I do not. I love knowing that if my sick child calls from school, there is a 99% chance that whatever I am working on can easily be postponed. I don't like my calendar all full - it stresses me out. I dislike appointments, driving, and sometimes (gasp!) shopping.

So I am perfectly suited for home.


Cooking is something I love and am good at. Laundry sorting is therapuetic to me. Vacuuming is soothing and enjoyable.

While I love it within these walls, though, too often the guilt of what I'm NOT doing gets in the way of the joy. I am working on getting there. Just as soon as I find balance.

Youth Conference was great! My class went smoothly and I got many compliments afterward. The bishopric and their wives were also invited on Sat to hear the testiomonies and have dinner. It was really neat and I'm glad I was there.

Busy Busy! That's my week so far. My little sister gets married in a week and I've been doing lots of stuff to get ready. Also, one of her showers was last night and her personal shower is tomorrow. Most of it ius being done by my sisters and I. The one last night was really fun, actually, and she got some very nice things. We decorated with red roses and it was simple but pretty. It was a lot of fun to work on a project with W and A. We don't get to do much of that.

Tonight we are headed to a restaurant while the kids are at grandma's. I'm looking forward to it. After that I need to make a double batch of cupcakes for the Saturday shower. I'm borrowing an icing tip and doing a cool technique to make them pretty :) Outside I've been spray painting hers and her fiance's initials to hang from pretty ribbons on Mom's front door.

Chore report: I've done fairly well with the bedroom. Not getting out of control anymore, but could use a little more of my focus. I also am making a pretty good effort at doing a load of laundry every day. I have noticed that the hampers are no longer perpetually overflowing. I thought it would be harder than it has been. Surprisingly manageable!

Dh has also been doing little projects that have stacked up: carpet cleaning, weeding the front bed edges, burned-out bulbs, bathroom cabinet hardware. Still need to get locking knob for the bedroom and switch it for the bathroom one that's really in bad shape. Maybe we'll look at prices while we are out tonight. I think we'll rent a movie, too.