Making the old new again

Never in my life did I imagine that I would have a white bedroom set in my home. I wouldn't even LOOK at them when we were choosing the furniture for our nursery and we ended up with a 'natural' wood color.

However, on a shopping trip to Salvation Army when my daughter was about 8 or so months old I ended up coming home with a WHITE twin bed. The horror still stuns me :)

So, when she started using the big girl room we had to get furniture to somehow match it. Or at least come close. I wanted a low, long dresser but not a high, narrow one. Does that make sense?? I also didn't want the low long one to have a mirror attached to it. There was already a mirror on the wall in the room and I wanted to use that and just position the dresser beneath it.

I didn't want to spend a fortune on furniture either though. I was delightfully surprised when my parents offered us my old dresser from when I lived at home. I moved out of my parents home the day I got married and didn't take any of my bedroom furniture with me. The bed was technically theirs and they could still use it for the grandkids. The dresser was mine but we had no space for it since my husband had been living on his own in our current home for nearly 4 years and every room was outfitted. Thus, it became storage space for my 'rents.

They told me I could have it back if I really wanted to paint it for the big girl room. I REALLY wanted to do this and after I showed the piece to the hubs he was pretty happy too. I got this piece when I was a teenager from a  church rummage sale. I offered them $20 for it and they offered to put it in the car for me! It is much older than me and beautifully built. It is one of those pieces that you look at and say: "they don't make things like this anymore".

We took it home, removed the handles off the drawers and my husband got to work. I barely remembered to take pictures of what it looked like 'before' but you can get the basic idea.

One coat of primer and two coats of white paint (not exactly like the bed but close enough) later and it was ready. I thought about getting new, fun handles but when we put one back on 'just to see', I fell in love. The old ones went back on and much to everyone's dismay I didn't even try to clean them up. I love the look they have after all these years. I don't even know what all I will put into every drawer but I am sure they will fill up as C grows up :) I could barely wait to decorate with my craft projects...I was really bugging my husband to give me the green light but I had to wait until the paint 'cured'...it was so worth everything though: