Furniture Refinish

As I have said before, Mark missed his calling.  Well, actually he didn't miss his calling he just so happens to be really good at many things.  One of those things being, taking the old pieces of junk furniture that I pick up and refinishing them so that they can have a new life in our home.  A few months ago my mom, Julia and I made a trip to First Monday in Canton.  We have realized that what we love about Canton isn't the wares that others have created, but actually the junk.  So, we don't even bother with the pavilions any longer, unless we have extra time to kill, we go straight to the junk section and have the best time.  My mother loves Canton, always has, and I on the other hand kind of despised it.  I was such a fool because I have missed out on some really great trash to treasure items.  On our last trip we were walking along and just happened upon this old dresser.  You see, I had been looking for something to place in Julia's room for quite some time and I didn't want just anything.  I had a certain idea in my head, but I just hadn't found it.  Well, we struck GOLD this day.  I found the perfect dresser in pretty good shape for $70.  It was pretty as is, but just needed a little TLC.  As you will sort of see (don't have a wide enough angle lens), it is a beautiful piece of furniture.  Mark worked on the painting and I lined all of the drawers.

Speaking of drawers.  I used this tutorial from Julie Hahn over at Hahn Haus.    I am thrilled with how the drawers look.  However, a word to the wise, when she says the thicker the better when referencing paper, please listen.  Now, it wasn't that I wasn't listening, I just had a really big drawer and I knew I was going to have to do a lot of piecing together (and didn't want to) so I tried wrapping paper first.  EPIC FAIL!  Awful, awful mess, which in turn required sanding to undo what I had done.  Only saving grace was I inadvertently added the paper to the wrong side of the drawer bottom (they had been removed) so no harm done.  In the future, if I have a large section, I may try wall paper.  I do really like how the drawers turned out and it was the perfect little touch for the little lady's dresser.  If you need a great tutorial on how to add scrapbook paper to a drawer, or anything for that matter, she gives great instructions, with pictures, on how to do it.

This is what it looked like before paint and after one light sanding.

These are the drawers before they were lined and the EPIC FAIL paper. 

Finished!  Simply perfect for her room.

Lightly rubbed edges

Lined drawers.  So much better than contact paper.  That stuff, well let's just say it isn't any good.

I think this is what sold me on the dresser.  I loved the spindle legs and the detail on the bottom

And just because I love him so

And the girl child too