Refinished Dresser

Two years ago Nick and I decided to get rid of our bedroom furniture because we needed more drawer space and we wanted an update look. At that time we had my parents bedroom furniture that I believe was their very first bedroom furniture. At one point I was just looking for a dresser that we could use until we could afford a new bedroom suite. I searched craigslist and found a dresser that was only $60.00 and I had Nick go pick it up. Well when he brought it home it was not at all what I imagined it would be and the pictures really did not give the best image of it. The dresser had ALOT of drawers but it was super small. All in all we made it work for awhile. I wish I had taken a picture of it when we bought it because it needed to be restained. Nick and I spent many hours sanding and restaining the dresser. The dresser also had a bunch of nasty glued in liners in each drawers, so those needed to go and took FOREVER. Once the dresser was restained and we added new knobs to the dresser and new liner it actually did not look that bad.

(this is the best BEFORE picture I have of the dresser)

After about a year we ended up getting pregnant again and needed a dresser in the baby room. It actually was the perfect size and the color matched the crib so we decided it was time to move the dresser in Caden's baby room and get a new dresser and then we ended up buying a whole new bedroom suite. The dresser has worked great for Caden and did everything I needed it to do. Well another year has passed and we found out we are pregnant with a girl this time and I really want the dresser to be white with the decor we were doing. I debated many times getting a new dresser for her and moving Caden's into his new room or just refinishing it. Well I ended up refinishing the dresser. I love it! I basically primed the entire furniture with two layers and then I had a semi-gloss white on hand that I painted the base frame with. Then the drawers I primed twice and then painted the drawers the same gray as in the bedroom. I bought 6 new knobs for the top drawers from Anthropologie that were on sale from $8 to $2.50; they are aqua and match the room and I kept the silver knobs that it currently had on it for the rest of the drawers. It looks awesome with the room and I'm glad I took the time to do this project. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do

(white frame of the dresser)

(another view of the white frame)

The final look!

Fourth Phase Complete

PICTURES:

(baskets from Lowes, still need to finish the dresser)

(closet area, new diaper bag, quilt made by my grandma, rocking chair that needs paint)

Today we woke up and got the gray paint out again and my mom rolled over most of the chevron wall. It freaked us both out because the paint became very wrinkly and wanted to roll off with the roller. So she did not press too hard afraid the tape might come off. Then I went in and did the edges and the second touch-up of all the areas. I knew the gray paint would bleed onto the white areas because our wall is so textured. We let the wall dry most of the day while we ran errands and picked up a few things for Codi's room. When we got back we took the tape off and sure enough I have ALOT of touch-ups to do. I can honestly say I spent an hour doing some of the them today and I'm not even half way done. So I have another time consuming task on my hands, but I'm in no rush to complete it. So I might spend an hour on it a day and finish it when I do. Basically I'm taking the white paint and a small paint brush and using a steady hand to make my lines straight.

A few other painting task:

1. paint the rocking chair white

2. paint the drawers of the dresser (they are primed right now)

3. two canvas art I will add to the walls

Friday task for tomorrow:

1. make the bedskirt

2. work on the drawers

Things I still need to order:

1. Lamp from IKEA

2. cloth diapers from cotton babies

3. piece of art with Codi's name on it

4. her name plate for the door

5. another art decor

More updates will come over time as I add decor to the room and then hopefully a room reveal at the end of April.

Phase Three Complete

Today has been a much easier day, but my hands hurt from taping the very textured wall. We all woke up around 9am this morning and ate breakfast. My mom was planning on spending the day with my brother, nephew and sister-in-law so we did not expect to get any painting done today. Just me taping away on that chevron wall. It so happened that she did not end up going to visit until after lunch time, so we decided to go ahead and start painting. We finished the bottom half of the wall with the Candy Mix paint. Then I went around and took all the tape off the walls to see what touch-ups I needed to do. I took care of most of them. The only touch-ups I have left to do is on the white border where the paint bleed through the paint. Lets just say edge lock tape is not edge lock on super textured walls. I will take care of that tomorrow with a small brush, because I'm sure I will be doing that on the chevron wall too. After mom left for the day and Caden was napping and Connor was either in the backyard playing or playing with playdoh I took care of finishing the chevron wall. My fingers hurt so much from taping, but ITS DONE!!! Don't know if I will ever attempt another one again. It was super tedious, but tomorrow I will see how much I like or dislike it. Towards the end of taping I ran out of tape and had to start cutting down 1.5in tape to 1in tape which was not fun and made the task longer. After I was done Connor and I went outside to eat popsicles and enjoy some of the pretty day.

(Chevron wall all taped)

(Another view of the room)

(The closet area with of course the crib in it - that has been moved all around the room while painting)

(Another view of the room)

(More of the Chevron wall)

Task for Thursday:

We are ahead of schedule, so all I have left to do tomorrow is paint the chevron wall gray and take off the tape. Then I will let it dry and start touching up the white areas that need it with a small brush

Get curtains and rug

Start attempting to make the bedskirt

Move all the furniture back in the room - still working on the dresser - frame is done, but drawers are not. Rocking chair still needs to be painted. Still debating on painting it white or gray. Decisions, decisions

Then its time to decorate the room!!!!! More on that later!!!

How to do a chevron wall:

I took the measurements of the area I was working on. My height was 45.75in and my width was 135in. I then how to do a little math. Basically I divided the width in half and found my center point of the wall and then from the center out to each end I put a vertical line of tape every 5in. It then left me with 1.5in on each end which I ended up just being fine with, because it was too hard to figure out how to make it even. Then deciding how far apart the chevrons were going to be was the tricky part. I really wanted to do 5in again, but when I did the math it didn't work very well, because I had to take in account that I have 1in tape thickness as well. So I decided to go with 4in and it worked out pretty good. So I made a little sheet with my measurements and started measuring and taping away. Once I got it down it went pretty fast. If you have more questions on this please ask and I will try to be more detailed, but it was just trial and error with my math until I found what worked best.

I should have another update tomorrow - stay tuned!

Phase Two Complete

So here goes Phase #2 and a sore back!

Before picture of the closet:

(Caden's closet)

So today my mom came in town and I had already started taping off the room to begin painting and when she got here she helped me finish it up. We first started with the closet because it was one color and went pretty fast. All I bought was a quart and man did we almost need more, thank goodness it covered well and I have a drop left for touch ups.

(Surfer Paint - closet)

(another view of the closet)

All my paints were Behr paint color, but I had Sherwin Williams tint them to their paint since I had coupons. Then we had lunch and sat a little bit. I believe the paint colors are Milestone (gray color), Candy Mix (coral color) and Surfer (aqua color). After lunch we began on the gray color at the top of the walls. It covered really well and we did not need a second coat. Once we finished the gray paint and let it dry for a bit we took the tape off.

(Milestone Paint - window view)

(another snap shot)

This was the other project I was working on today - which by the way is the longest task ever so it better look good when its done. My only fear is when this house was build in the 70s they must of loved textured walls and tape on textured walls do not leave a nice smooth line - I see touch up painting in the future. Anywho this is my chevron wall I'm working on. Its a pattern on the wall for those confused on what a chevron wall - it makes the chevron design. The wall will also be the Milestone gray color after I finish taping it and where the tape is it will be white. Tomorrow I hope to spend the day taping the rest of the wall. Then on Thursday it will be painted.

(a lot of math goes into figuring out this wall)

(oh by the way I tried a program off pintrest on creating this wall, it seemed like it was going to work great and then it didn't - oh well)

Task for Wednesday:

Mom is off to spend the day with my nephew, brother and sister-in-law, so I will be taking the day slower. I plan to finish taping the chevron wall and then do some small errands with the boys. Then Nick and I have a parent dedication class at church for Caden to attend. I will try to post some more pictures of the chevron wall tomorrow evening and maybe a little info on how to create it.

Task for Thursday:

Paint the bottom of the wall Candy Mix color and then paint the chevron wall. Then take all tape off and do touch ups. Then we will move all the furniture in. Keep watching for more updates.

Phase One Complete

The before pictures of Caden's Nursery:

(Caden's nursery)

(Caden's Nursery)

This week is the week to get the nursery painted and start addingin the details. This weekend I cleaned out all of Caden's things and cleared the room so I could start painting. Sunday we went to the rodeo and when I got back I went out and bought all the paint supplies I needed and did not already have. Man paint has sure gotten expensive, but this should last for awhile. Unfortunately Caden's room decor only lasted a year =( But I boxed it up for use when he gets his own room one day.

Today (Monday) my goal was to put the first layer of paint down - which was white. It will eventually be a white border and part of the chevron wall I will be creating. The reason for this is that I needed it to dry really good so that tomorrow when we starting taping and painting the other colors the paint would be dry and ready to go.

(Painting the white border)

(Painting the white border)

(Painting the white border and the background to the chevron wall)

My mother is coming into town tomorrow and staying through the week to help me finish the room up and do some other things on my list. I should have updates on the progress throughout the week so that by this weekend you will get to see the finished result. I'm super excited about it and hope it turns out the way I imagine it to look like.

Everything Girl!

So for the past three years of my life I've been knee deep into boy stuff and it is so much fun! Now that we found out we are having a girl there are a few things I need to change just to add to the fun of having a girl and because its necessary!

One of those things would be a new diaper bag. I love my diaper bag I have right now from Pottery Barn for Caden. Its all boy and super cute, but in no way did I want to use it for Codi because I wanted something girly and cute. My goal when looking for a new diaper bag was the size. Since I'm going to have two children 13 mths apart I need a diaper bag thats big enough to carry for two. Connor has his own backpack and loves to wear it, so I'm good there. I use to have a JJ Cole Diaper Bag with Connor and really liked it alot because the material was wipable and there was lots of compartments, diaper changing pad, and a pacifier holder. Well when I had Caden I needed a little bit bigger bag and opted to go with a Pottery Barn diaper bag but the bad side of it is that its cloth and the bottom gets really dirty, but other than that its held up pretty good.

So all in all I started looking a JJ Cole diaper bags again because the price was right and there are some cute ones with cute designs out there. Here is what we got! It is the JJ Cole Technique Diaper Bag and comes in several colors - we choose the Red Flower.

Secondly we've used the same carseat for the last two babies and its very neutral with a little bit of green, but it of course has been well used and the material is pretty nasty. Yes we've washed it but we wanted something fresh with our new baby and more girly. So we opted to buy a carseat cover that fits our carseat. Its cheaper than most because all you do is slip it over your current cover to seat cover - the more expensive ones you take off your current carseat cover and the new ones has a new backing on it for comfort. They run rather pricey and since my mother bought it for us we went with the cheaper route. So we will just take off our cover - wash it and then replace it and had the new cover on top. Here is what it looks like!

Both sort of match Codi's room because her room has turquoise and coral and gray so I thought both were super cute and different! I can't not wait to receive both in the mail. One more week and then we will start painting the nursery!!!!

Caden Eight Months

We started something new with Caden that we did not do with Connor. We started taking his monthly pictures so we could see his growth throughout his first year. At the end of the year I am going to put all the pictures in a book together and use as gifts. Caden will be 11 months old on the 11th, but I've only edited up through his eight month photo. So here it is!!! He turned eight months on December 11, 2011.

Our Crazy Life Right now!

Well swimming as finally wrapped up and my swimmers ended the season with some amazing times and medals. I can not be a happier coach for my first year of coaching! Who knew I would actually like coaching swimming after all the years of my life I committed to swimming 20+ hours a week (like a part-time job). So yay now that swimming is basically completed minus the banquet and fundraiser coming up I can finally focus on baby #3 and spend some quality time with my family!

Here are a few things that we have planned in the next months - which leaves me with not alot of free time, but its all fun so I can't complain.

First on our list: This weekend we are headed to Austin to visit my parents and spend some quality time with them. We plan to go to the Longhorn Caverns or the Austin Zoo so the kids can have some fun. I also plan to bring back one neat piece of furniture (more on that later).

Second on our list: In two weeks (the start of SPRING BREAK!!!) my little family is headed to Seaworld and the River Walk. We all get in free because teachers get free passes and then my kiddos all fall under the free status - not fun and cheap trip!!!

When we come back from Seaworld - during Spring Break my mother is coming down for part of the week to help me decorate baby Codi's nursery. Right now I'm in the process of refurnishing the dresser and hope to have that completed before Spring Break and then I need to spray paint the rocking chair. When my mom is here we are going to paint the walls, make a bed skirt and curtains. Poor Caden will be kicked out of his room for a week because of the paint smells. My goal is to have the room completed by mid April.

Sign on her door

Then I have my swim banquet at the end of March and then we are into April and I will be about 31 weeks pregnant.

We will start off April celebrating Easter with our family/friends. We plan to have Caden's 1st birthday party Easter weekend since I will get a four day weekend and also celebrate my Dad's birthday since Caden and my dad share the same birthday on April 11th. It will be a fun weekend of celebrations!

Caden's invitation I created on the computer

Then its countdown to baby with a baby shower for Codi at the start of May - hosted by my sister =) (she has never been to a baby shower of mine because she lives in Dallas - so I'm super excited to share this with her). We hope our precious girl is to arrive by c-section on May 21st.

Wow is all I can say - its a busy Spring which is unusual because our Fall is usually the the busiest time and Spring seems to go forever!!!