Furniture Makeover

As a child, I had beautiful white furniture from my nursery. My mom had picked it out from Macy's when I was still in her belly, and my dad, obliged her wishes. The set, minus the crib of course, stayed with my sister and I throughout our childhood. The pieces evolved as we got older. My mom got pretty handy and decided she wanted to re-do them, because she no longer liked them white. She sanded them down until the white was gone.

Now, I have to explain that these dressers were not the present day sort of dressers with the pressed wood and the fake wood that looks like real wood glued on top of it. These dressers are solid wood. Very nice quality.

So back to my mom. She sanded them down, and put a beautiful natural stain on my big dresser, and added a pretty flower decal on the front of the drawers. My sisters dresser (the smaller of the two, and it was also a changing table) she got sanded, but never actually got around to finishing it. So there it sat. Unfinished, for about 13 years. My sister has since gotten married and moved on her own. She no longer had use for her dresser and left it with my mom. My mom, who has now downsized due to her babies leaving the nest, no longer had room for it. So guess who inhereted it??? Me!

I have to be honest, at first I didn't want it. I was thinking 'what the crap am I going to do with an unfinished dresser? and WHERE is it going to go??'. Lilly and Ethan share a bedroom. I have 2 cribs, my original dresser, and a changing table in there. They are comfortable, but there isn't a TON of space. (which, they don't need much space, they are babies, and Lilly plays in Ryan's room most of the time anyway). But there was no way I could fit a second dresser in there. NO WAY! I did some brain storming, and finally just came to the conclusion that I was going to have to finish the job my mom started so many years ago. However, the dresser in there already was stained a natural wood color. I don't like the lighter wood. I'm more of a cherry wood kind of girl. My whole house is cherry wood. So, I decided not only did I have to finish my sisters dresser, I was going to have to sand down my original dresser, and stain that one as well.

This project was a LOT of work! But I'm SO happy I went through with it and did it. It took me a couple of weeks to get the both of them done, and a little expertise from Lisa to make sure I didn't ruin these beautiful pieces, and in the end they turned out absolutely perfect. The first dresser I did was mine. I had to sand it all down (and boy was that a lot of work). Except, I didn't want to get rid of the pretty flower decals my mom put on the drawers. My mom never sealed her work, so I was able to just stain OVER the stain she already had on it. At first I was worried, but it came out beautiful. I don't have pictures of the first one, I know, I know I suck. The second one I took before and after pictures.

Here is the dresser all sanded down. I wish I had a picture of it all white... My mom might somewhere. Use your imagination.

Here it is after I got it stained. I ended up staining this dresser darker than my dresser. (more coats of stain). Which works out perfectly, because my dresser (which is on Lilly's side) matches Lilly's crib PERFECT, and this one, matches Ethans, whose crib is a tad darker than Lilly's. I took the changing table out of their room, and gave it to my sister (who is expecting!!) and I slapped the changing pad on top. I need to make a nursery post so I can show you all how totally cute I have set up their room.

This last picture is horrible, and it isn't even on this wall anymore. Moved it around! Like I said, I'll have to get a nursery post on here. But I'm so pleased with my project!! Huge thanks to Lisa who explained a lot to me with regards to how to actually stain furniture. Wood is complicated.