Master Bedroom Makeover: The Low Dresser

 

Well it's Friday, but I managed to make it to the ol' blog this week after all. This week was insane! (I would go into more detail than that, but some of those details involve a toddler with a stomach bug, so be happy I choose not to.) Since I finished Jason's Nightstand in Part 1 of our Master Bedroom Makeover, I have since finished my nightstand AND the beautiful, gorgeous, oh-so-incredibly-pretty-I-just-want-to-do-a-happy-dance-every-time-I-look-at-it low dresser. Are you ready to see what all my fuss the fuss is about?!? Here comes the before...



This is the original picture I found on Craigslist that inspired this whole project. Can you see why?! All Hail Madame La Dauphine!!

 

And here is what came next...

 

 

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 And without further ado, here's the AFTER!

 

Meet Antoinette, my new BFF. She's the kind of BFF who's prettier than you but you don't care because being her BFF makes you cooler.
 

Antoinette is the high-maintenance sort, so please, unless you're prepared to praise her effusively, keep your thoughts to yourself!

The side-by-side, added for your viewing convenience. See how much I care about you?

For this dresser (and its taller friend to be introduced later), I used Benjamin Moore Advance in Chantilly Lace for the paint and Rustoleum Metallic Chrome Spray Paint (Amazon Affiliate Link HERE) for the hardware. The Chantilly Lace is a white with gray undertones, but it has a little bit of a creaminess to it as well that I think goes perfectly with the new gray walls and aqua bedding (I promise to unveil the new bed in all its beautiful glory to you sometime soon!).

Side note--the hardware on the cabinets wasn't removable, so there was a whole big to-do about spraypainting that and then attempting to paint over the silver overspray with the Chantilly Lace using a craft paintbrush. I already did won't bore you with the frustrating details of that situation.



Painting this antique French Provincial furniture turned out to be more just as difficult as I expected. All those pretty curves and details are fun to look at, but they tend to complicate the whole sanding, priming, re-sanding, and re-priming process just a tad! Don't get me wrong, ALL of that backbreaking hard work has DEFINITELY been worth it, but maximum payoff absolutely requires maximum effort in the land of furniture rehabilitation. I'm having a great time learning though, and I can't tell you how much it has changed our bedroom for the better. I can't believe I didn't do this years ago! Where was my gumption to learn and create and reuse and save money when we bought our house?! Shame on me for totally wasting spending so much hard-earned dough on crappy particle-board and veneer at big box stores that required poor Jason to spend hours cursing at putting together when I could have just done this right from the start!

 

Especially before I had kids! I am still fantasizing at what I might have done with my house with all of that free time...in alternate universe somewhere the Brooke who waited a few years to have babies has one heck of an amazing house!

 

Never again!

*Shakes fist in the air with vengeance.

Anyway, this low dresser has been "gussied up" a bit since this picture was taken. We have since added a vintage mirror and some other thrifted-vintage-and-painted goodies, but I must wait to unveil those until the accessorizing is absolutely freakin' perfect the moment is right.

I'll take a moment out now to tell you the story of the two-year-old who found the silver leaf pen right before this picture was taken, ran at said dresser with said silver leaf pen, and scribbled all over the top center drawer with said silver leaf pen. I'll also take a moment to leave out the part about the hysterical mommy, who spent the next hour repainting said drawer and apologizing to said (crying) two year old for yelling at him too loudly. Oh wait, that's the whole crazy mommy moment story. Oops.

Last night my nightstand made its introduction to the "new" bedroom (I'm no longer hanging off the bed-cliff in my sleep anymore, yay!), which makes this a good time to show you a better photo of Jason's Nightstand from last week. You remember the before:

Sitting in that used furniture shop, looking so innocent. Little did he know what was in store for him...

and here is the DSLR version of the after (sorry about the crapberry picture last week, it was inexcusable laziness and will probably not never happen again!):

Meet Charles. He is the sophisticated sort who prefers espresso to coffee and scotch to whiskey. He likes the finer things in life, so don't even think about putting your bedside glass of water on him without a coaster (you know who you are, sir!).

Tonight, if all goes according to plan (which there's a good chance it won't because aforementioned toddler with a stomach bug still has said stomach bug and may or may not have gifted it to her brother, but it's Friday so I'll go with the half-full glass and say IT'S HAPPENING), the high dresser will be making its introduction to its permanent home in the MB as well!

*Squeals with excitement*
 

Fingers crossed, I had a bit of a snafu with some cabinet doors that I will tell you all about sometime down the road when I manage to get that Big Boy into my room, photographed, and onto my blog.

Happy thrifting, creating, and decorating, but most of all--Happy FRIDAY!