How To Reupholster An Heirloom Bench

Hello there!!! I'm baaaaaaack! :) First off, it's April 15th and I'm not working crazy hours because it's tax season (can I get a HALLELUJAH!?). Second, this is my first blog post in almost a YEAR! I've been away for a while because life has been crazy the past year and half! But we survived! I'll do a big ol' blog post with a little personal update soon, but for now I'll leave you with a super easy DIY tutorial!

I'm definitely easing back into that DIY life! To be honest, I have a little bit of DIY A.D.D. lately. Since we moved into our house back in June, my brain has been on overload with everything I want to update/renovate/paint/fix/etc! I want to do ALL THE THINGS NOW! But you know, there's that whole part where things cost money or something... oh, and take time (#3Kids4AndUnder). And the number of my children that take naps is slowly diminishing (one out of three still take naps). I think I have at least five projects right now where I have most or all of the supplies, and I just need to carve out the time to get them done!

OK, on to the bench! A few years back when my parents downsized, my Mama passed down some of a furniture set from her grandmother. It's this rich wood with intricate design and I love it. I use the stand up dresser for craft storage and the desk/vanity is in Emerson's room. The bench has been hanging out in our Master Bedroom with this lovely original gold fabric. I had some of this black and white striped fabric (from IKEA) leftover from a pouf project (tutorial to come!), and I thought it would work well on the bench.

DIY: Coral Dresser Drawer Liner

Remember the coral dresser I redid for the nursery? Here's a little sneak peak of it set up in the nursery... or at least how it was the other day. :)

Coral Dresser for the Nursery

She's DONE!!!

Excuse the tarp and the deck... This is most likely where she will stay until we move in a month or so (still working on where we are moving to...) with the tarp over top (and covered by our awning) in case of rain. 

Isn't she pretty?!?! I'm kind of in love. Well, not kind of. Seriously. Seriously in love.

Here's a quick before and after before we get in to the nitty gritty.

Here's my original post about the dresser progress. I might recap a little bit here too... We started out with my $100 Craigslist find. The brass knobs were a worn dark brown and there were quite a few scratches and nicks. 

After sanding...

And after priming...

It was time for paint! I chose the color Youthful Coral from Behr and got a pint in the Interior Semi-Gloss Enamel (and No-VOC for the nursery). I mostly used the 1.5 and 3 inch brushes. I splurged a bit and bought the Purdy brushes, since I'd heard they were such good quality and helped show less brush strokes. There were still a few visible brush strokes, but only if you got close after 3+ coats.

First coat...

Second coat...

Third coat...

Touch ups on the top (fourth coat)... I used a small foam roller for the top on the third coat, but it didn't cover as nicely as I liked, so I used the large brush to do one good final coat and it turned out great.

Next up was attacking those knobs. I had heard about Brasso from this blog (and one of my inspiration dressers) and it worked like a charm! I enlisted Zach to help me polish up the handles since I heard it was really smelly and didn't want to be around it in my "condition." :) It probably took about an hour to get all six of the long drawer handles (and various pieces) polished. Not easy work and a lot of scrubbing, but for $2 and a little elbow grease it was well worth it! Check out the difference it made.

I could not handle the ring knobs on the middle drawers though. They kept reminding me of the nose rings that you would see on a bull. Even when they were spruced up. No thanks. So for the middle drawer knobs, I bought two sets of three each while I was in Arizona at Hobby Lobby (similar to these ones and these ones from Anthro). The knobs at Hobby Lobby are so much more reasonably priced and they have a lot of the same styles as Anthropologie. They cost around $3.99 each, but were 50% off when I bought them! I decided on the white flower shaped knobs because they looked awesome and the aqua polka dots were a little too much with the coral dresser. Plus, the white flower shaped knobs matched the flower design on the original knobs.

I did end up leaving the base part from the original ring shaped pulls. I liked the flower shape and it made it so I didn't have to do any hard core sanding and/or refilling of the grooves that they left on the drawer fronts.

I also decided to paint over the brass decals that were along the bottom. I originally had the two squares on either side taped off, but didn't like the hard contrast once the rest of the dresser was painted. I like them painted the same color much better - still keeps the detail, but doesn't distract from the rest of the dresser's fun details.

You may notice that she has a middle leg, which I kind of forgot to paint (see it in the picture below? Still brown. Oops!). I don't know if I could have reached it even if I did remember it, but I think I'm going to be lazy and just leave it for now. Unless I can convince my lovely husband to get down there and give it a quick coat or two. Obviously it's not super noticeable or else I would have done it in the first place! Haha.

I was also thinking about doing a top coat of polyurethane to really seal and protect the piece, but the enamel semi-gloss is pretty sturdy and I think it should hold up well. At least for now. Honestly, I'm so glad I'm done with this piece now and that I started when I did because I am getting so uncomfortable. To have to bend over and paint any more would not be fun. I was getting really out of breath towards the end! Especially since I was fully clothed, gloved and had my surgeon-grade face mask on (safety first!).

The only thing I still want to do is get some fun paper to line the drawers. Maybe a fun pattern or even some pretty florals? I'll be sure to post an update when I get around to it!

I'm so pleased with how it turned out! I think it will look amazing in the nursery (which I can't wait to get all set up!). Here's another before and after just for funsies. I love seeing the dramatic change. So much fun.

What are you working on these days? Any fun DIY projects? I feel like I'm in full on nesting mode right now and want to make a ton of stuff! Next up for me is a DIY pouf ottoman! 

A Dresser for the Nursery - Progress

I bought a dresser for the nursery about a month ago for $100 on Craigslist. I'd been looking for a while to find the perfect one, something similar to this one, this one or especially this one. I knew I wanted a long dresser with plenty of storage (for all those cute little socks and onesies!) and some kind of interesting detail. I found just that with this beauty. 

The Perfect End Table

Remember last week when I said I had a project to share? Well the time has finally come! I am so excited about this one. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into it. See that beautiful end table up there? That's it! Zach and I made it with our own two hands. What was a couple of boards, is now a sturdy and stylish side table. 

I was really bad and didn't take any pictures along the way. Even though we had step by step instructions, this was very much a learn-as-you-go project! I'm going to try and give some tips on how we made it, but you can find the basic instructions on Ana White's blog if you are interested. She does some pretty awesome stuff over there. You should check it out! 

OK, here goes. Get ready for a text heavy post...

Better After Feature!

Hey everybody. I'm back again today to share a little feature! Check out my Jade Dresser Before + After featured on the blog Better After today!

Mr. Dresser Needs Deodorant

I inherited a dresser from my mom (don't worry, my Mama's fine!) when we went to Portland last weekend. It was my Mom's grandparent's dresser and it a big old sturdy piece of furniture. It's pretty masculine (which I like) and is this beautiful deep dark brown/cherry color, with some lighter wood accents. The dresser is unique because the top three drawers are actually inside swing out doors. It's kind of cool and I like how it makes it different. We'll see if it's actually practical... but I think it might be a nice change. 

The drawers are a little stiff and it smells pretty bad like mothballs (yuck!), which is one of the reasons why I need your help! I've searched around online a bit to see if there is an easy way to get out the mothball smell (honestly, I don't know why you would ever use them unless you had a really bad moth/rat problem...) and what I found was 

1) fresh air 
2) MaryEllen's Atmosklear or Smelleze® Mothball Deodorizer Pouch 
3) vinegar and/or coffee (from here). 

Do you have any advice? Please help! I just want the smell to be gone, especially since I will most likely be using this bad boy for my everyday clothes. I do not  want to be smelling like mothballs everyday. Nothankyou.

Here's some more shots to see what the inside is like now. I might put some new liners in there. 

Just in case anyone was wondering... this is how it went down... (Yvonne is my Mama, Hallie is my Gma).

I also love all the little details like the little banner on the outside of the swing doors, the vintage handles and the two toned wood. I'm not planning on doing any painting or even refinishing in the near future. Not just yet. I really want to preserve the integrity of the piece. It's too pretty! Unless the mothball smell doesn't leave. Then I might have to see if paint will cover it. :)

Don't you love old furniture? I do! There's just so much history and style from back in the day. So cliche... but they really don't make them like they used to. 

Don't forget to leave a comment if you have any advice for de-mothballing this guy. I really appreciate it!