The past two weekends I've been knee-deep in elbow grease trying to finish up some projects for Riely's room. You may remember that I began the process of decorating her room, um, about two years ago?? (This is the main reason that, my daydream delusion of one day starring in my own HGTV show will never come to fruition. Because when it comes to decorating, I am painfully slow, ridiculously indecisive, and easily distracted by other HGTV shows.)
But despite the prolonged time frame, I am finally getting the little missy's room together. One of the final projects was to repaint and distress her dresser (which I found at a flea market shortly after she was born) and her make-up table/vanity (which used to belong to me, and my mom before that.) I realize that this post would have much more impact if I'd had the wherewithall to snap some "before" photos. But because my painting process began after the consumption of several beers on a Friday night, no photos were taken. So you will just have to trust me on the fact that both of these pieces look SO MUCH BETTER NOW. Really. And that's not just the beer talking.
The dresser and vanity both started life with different (read: kinda icky) colors. The dresser had been painted black and the vanity was stained a medium brown. Because Riely's room is pretty small and dark furniture only makes it look smaller, I opted to paint both pieces white (I used a white latex paint in an eggshell finish applied with a small foam roller). To better match her antique iron bed, I also wanted to add distressing to give them a little bit of age and patina.
Here's the finished vanity and matching chair:
It took two coats of paint and then I added distressing by lightly sanding the areas (with medium-grit sandpaper) that would normally be exposed to wear.
I also repainted a round mirror that will eventually hang above the vanity.
The big red flower (found at Hobby Lobby) has a date with my glue gun and will soon be adorning the edge of the mirror.
I lined the drawer with wrapping paper from Target (applied with spray adhesive) and added a new ceramic drawer pull (also from Hobby Lobby.)
As I mentioned above, the dresser was painted black when I originally bought it. The drawers were super musty and smelly so the whole thing got a coat of KILZ Primer (inside & out!) before I painted it. After two coats of white paint, it was ready to distress. I used Mike's power sander for this job, because getting through all the layers of paint with hand-sanding was beyond my patience level. Plus, I rather enjoy using power tools (especially ones can't potentially dismember me.) Here's the final dresser:
I also lined these drawers with the same wrapping paper (yes, contact paper would have been easier but the designs I found were hideous!) and mis-matched ceramic knobs from Hobby Lobby:
To finish both pieces and make them somewhat kid-proof, I used Paste Finishing Wax to seal the surface. It's applied much like car wax - you rub it on and then buff it off - and it gives a smooth satin-y finish that isn't too glossy. I love it for distressed furniture project because it gives an instant patina to the piece that other sealers don't. And it's so easy to use, you can even do it while drinking beer. (Have you identified the critical component in my DIY projects yet??)
So with these two projects done, the room is almost complete. I've got a few tissue flowers to assemble today and some art projects to frame and then I'm hoping to share Riely's finished room with y'all. It will only be the second fully-finished room in our house (the mud room being the first). Yes, I know we've lived here for more than five years. But I've had a buttload of HGTV to watch over that five year span, people!
Stay tuned to more home decorating adventures...and have a great Monday!
