Furniture Makeovers~

You probably know that I have an eclectic decorating style and I like to mix styles too.  You may also know that I love incorporating antique pieces into my mix and I also get a kick out of rescuing or repurposing old pieces.  And you probably also know that I love adding punches of bright color here and there.

And my girls, by default (and sometimes by Mom's overriding decisions) have embraced some of my style :)

We let the girls pick their own room colors last summer (as long as Steve and I liked the colors too) and we got their rooms painted last summer.  Bella's room is light turquoise and Sophia chose apple green.  Luckily, Bella didn't have any pieces that she wanted painted or needed to be redone in order to use.  Since then, I've been slowly getting parts of Sophia's room to come together by repainting and repurposing some furniture.

Sophia had a tall highboy dresser that had been mine when I first moved out of my parent's home.  It was a great piece, but it was tall and she couldn't reach half the drawers...we were just making it work until we could get this beast redone.

It wasn't in the greatest shape~

Transformation has begun~

Steve and I rescued this piece from the garbage.  Yep, our neighbor in PA had put it out on the curb for the garbage men to haul off.  We asked if we could have it and happily brought it home to live in our garage...I LOVE FREE FURNITURE!  We moved it to TX and finally, this past spring, I began the process of making it pretty and useable for our sweet Sophia.

It's not a perfect piece...had some damage to a drawer that my hot handyman, Steve, was able to fix.  It needed new hardware, and still has some bumps and bruises...but this baby is solid wood and all dovetail joints...it's really a beautiful piece.  I knew that the condition it was in meant that I was not going to be stripping it and staining it...I was definitely NOT interested in that kind of work...so it got painted instead.  

I cleaned it the best I could, sanded it, put a couple coats of primer on it, and then painted it.  One thing I was not prepared for was how many coats of paint it needed.  We chose a favorite shade of white (Moonlight White by Behr) and decided to add an accent color that would compliment Sophia's green walls...Glazed Raspberry (by Behr) is what we chose.  Some of the original hardware was broken, so I let Sophia pick out new knobs and pulls.  She also picked out a stencil that I added to the side.  

Progress~

The project was a bigger pain than I had anticipated and I learned that I am no good at stenciling.  You don't get a close up of the cute bird stencil because it looks like I did it after a couple glasses of wine...come to think of it, I should have celebrated with a glass or two after this was done :)  But I really love the finished piece...and so does Sophia :)

LOVE the finished dresser...the colors are so pretty in her green room!

Late this summer I began the project of turning this old desk hutch into a book and display shelf for Sophia.  

 

Just starting the primer...no shelves added yet~

We bought this poor ugly thing at a thrift store last summer for $20...I knew I could bring it new life!  It had a glossy finish and even though I tried to use a liquid furniture stripper, I could barely get the original paint to degloss....I'm sure it was user error, but it was frustrating.  So I gave this piece many coats of primer too and then many coats of paint.  

I love how this piece turned out, but I may never do a project quite like this again.  See those little mail slots (remember, it's a desk hutch)...they were a PAIN to paint!  I had to get a special short handled brush and could only paint two interior sides at a time because the brush handle would touch the side opposite where I was painting.  Seriously, what was I thinking!  And painting the accent color was a bit trickier than I had anticipated also.  I finally just got tired of painting...my solution for painting the furniture feet was to just dip them in the paint can :)

I got tired of painting...dipping worked~

Steve, my hot handyman, added two shelves...the bottom and middle ones.  And he added the cute little painted ball feet...and voila, Sophia has a new bookshelf :) 

The finished piece...ready for Sophia's room~

Steve is moving it upstairs tonight...Sophia will be so happy to have a place for some of her things again :)  And I'm so happy that I'm done with painting projects for a while :)

Here's to a little hard work, a lot of painting, and a bit of creativity~

Rach