Gradient Green Dresser

Last week, I decided to get the power window fixed on the passenger side of our van. It took forever and was done just in time for me to get my oldest from school. One week to the day, the driver power window decided to fail - and fall down into the door. Monsoon season in Arizona? Yep, I was at the mechanics first thing Tuesday morning. This time, they got done faster and I had time for a trip to Home Goods (nearby-ish) before heading home. I found the perfect nightstands for the master bedroom... at a pretty decent price too!

However, I came home with the feeling that I really needed to get something out of my garage and into my house, especially since I was adding 2 more pieces of furniture to an already full garage. (I think I've got about 10 pieces in my garage counting the new nightstands, plus about 6 more in my house waiting for a remake or resell) So, I pulled out my "new" mid-century retro dressers and tackled the long one. I picked them up on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago. They're Basset furniture and according to the woman I bought them from, at least 52 years old.

Here's the before of the 9 drawer dresser:

The finish on this dresser was so worn that it looked and felt scaly. I had to sand it to the bare wood to get the dresser smooth. So, I sanded with 80, 150 and 220 grit sandpaper and finished that up Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, I moved it into the house and started painting. Most of the white was done by that evening. After 3+ coats of white and 3 coats of the 3 greens, I finished up the top coat with water-based polyurethane on Thursday night. I love it! and so do my boys...

After:
We'll be moving the dresser into the boy's bedroom Saturday night once the finish has cured a bit. I'll be selling the dressers currently in their room since I just don't have the room to keep every dresser that I've bought over the past few months.

Here's the before of the 4 drawer dresser that matches my green gradient dresser. After looking at the paint swatches against my girls room fabric, I discovered that the greens look really good with it and this one will get the same color scheme. I'm hoping to start this one either tomorrow or (more likely) on Monday. When it's done, it'll go into the spare room (future girls room) until we can make space for it in the boys room or at least that's the plan for now. If you haven't noticed, I change my mind a lot!


I chose the 400D paint chip from Home Depot's Behr paint line. The colors are Jungle trail (bottom), Grape Leaves (middle) and Grass Cloth (top). The 4 drawer dresser's top drawer will be Corn Husk Green which is a little lighter than the Grass Cloth.

I've also decided that when I use up all my water-based polyurethane, I'll switch back to polycrylic. I think I like it better.

So, the most amazing this about this dresser makeover? It only took me 2 1/2 days start to finish! It normally takes me weeks if not months to do this kind of extreme makeover, so I'm pretty proud of myself. Now I just have to catch up on my mountain of laundry and dishes...

Linking to:

Balloon Animals

My 6 year old went to a friend's birthday party this past weekend and another mother there was making balloon animals for the kids. All of my boys love balloons, my oldest in particular. After seeing that mom and asking her about it a bit, I decided it was something I could totally do. So, after the party I went on Amazon and bought a pack of balloons and an air pump. We got our balloons on Tuesday and by Friday night, I'd used all 100. Here's just a few of my earliest attempts. There were tons more all over the house that we hadn't found yet and we were popping them almost as fast as I was making them, but we still had quite the balloon clutter this week!


A rabbit:
A tiger:
A teddy bear:
I got a lot of my designs by watching youtube videos, but I also picked up a book on Amazon with instructions for some beginning shapes. I really enjoyed twisting the balloons and my 6 year old has started trying to twist some of his own. I'll be getting more balloons soon and learning more shapes and hopefully teaching my boys how to do it also.

French Provential Bench

Monday I decided to pull out my french provential bench and pull it apart to refinish it while my 2nd son was at preschool. My 2 year old helped me by throwing things away.

Here's the before. It was the same dirty green as the rest of that set and this one sported a lovely needle point.


After pulling out all the nails holding the needlepoint on, I started peeling back layers and discovered this gross surprise. Yep, it's disintegrated foam. I'm guessing it got wet (the support straps were really stretched out!) and that's what melded everything together.
So, after putting down a plastic drop cloth to contain the mess, I pulled everything off (including about 300 nails - no joke!) and threw it away. It was put together pretty much the same as my Chinese chippendale faux bamboo chair so I have pictures of that one for reference when I put it back together.

This morning, I pulled the frame out to the garage, sanded down the paint chipped spots and painted it a satin black. Here's where I'm at right now:

Once it's cured nicely, I'll be reupholstering it and I'll hopefully be listing it on Craigslist in a few days! This will be the first piece of furniture that I've redone with the intention of immediately selling it. Wish me luck!

Furniture in progress...

After finishing my table and chair, I decided that something needed to be done about our garage. It was covered in overspray from everything I've painted in their recently. After taking the time to clean and reorganize everything, I didn't want to do any spray painting in the garage for a while. I switched to the backyard and with monsoon season, I've been racing the rain every day that I want to paint! Ugh! Yesterday, I finally switched back to the garage just so I could finish something!

I finished working on this little kid table for a friend's granddaughter last weekend. Per her (the granddaughter's) instructions, the legs are purple and the top is pink with purple flowers. I finished it a week ago and delivered it but forgot to take an after picture. So, here's the before:
There's a couple of cars stickers on the white part, which I'm pretty sure is just primer - no paint. I removed the stickers, primed it and painted the table lavender. After that I put a vinyl stencil on top (flowers and a cute giraffe 'cause I knew she liked them and I wanted to.) and painted the table top pink. After that was dry, I removed the stencil and sealed the table with a couple coats of polycrylic. I really like how it turned out and I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture before I took it to my friend. When I get an after picture, I'll post it.

My 4 yr old keeps telling me that sometimes little boys like flowers too. He's so jealous of this little kid table I redid. Once I find a place for a kid table in my house (or make one!) and find another table, I'm seeing a Mario/Luigi table in my future. My boys love the Wii!
I've also been working on my two 3-drawer dressers. I'm almost finished with the drawers then I'll need to dig the bodies out of the furniture pile in my garage so I can paint them too.


I also picked up a mid-century retro style dresser set on Craigslist a week ago that I've added to my list of furniture to refinish. Haven't taken a before picture yet, but I'll try to remember before I start on them. I have some fun plans for them that my kids (and I) are excited about! I finally picked my colors for them yesterday, so I might push my french provential dressers to the side and work on my new dressers.

Here's my inspiration photo for my new dressers. I'd seen the gradient dressers that were her inspiration and liked them but hadn't thought to do it on a long dresser. My long one will be shades of green for the boys room and the tall one shades of pinky coral for the girls room.