Nursery Dresser Transformation

To say that I am happy with how the dresser/changing table combo turned out would be a gross understatement.    I'm obsessed with it.  I'm making anyone who comes to my house go upstairs and look at it.  And for good reason...it turned out flipping amazing!  This is what I started with:

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 There wasn't anything wrong with it.  Actually, like the crib that it came with, it was in near perfect condition.  You will notice the stack of books underneath it though - and that's because it kinda droops in the middle and makes it difficult to open the drawers.  Once The Sailor gets home I'll have him create a more permanent fix for that; for now, a stack of books works just fine!

Step one was to take out the drawers, remove the door (on the right), remove all the knobs, scrub that sucker down, and sand it.  Which, by the way, I finally bought a sander and it's the best thing that ever happened to me.  I'm just sayin' though...

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Then I primed it (with normal primer) and I painted it gray with spray paint.  Don't worry people - it was plenty ventilated (in the garage with the garage door open) and I wore a mask!

All that is boring.  Let's face it.  But now is when it gets exciting...the drawers on the left.

I've wanted to infuse as much color into the nursery through furniture/decorations since the walls are white and the carpet is beige.  I could paint it, but we'd have to paint it back before we left.  The last thing I will be wanting to deal with when we move (probably/hopefully in two and a half years) is painting.  So I decided to decoupage the drawers using brightly colored fabric.

I actually got the fabrics on sale from Joann's and they're perfect.

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The first step was to cut out a rectangle of fabric to cover the front of the drawer.  I didn't worry about having the edges be perfect since I planned to cover the border with ribbon anyway.

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Then I used a sponge brush to spread a thin layer of Mod Podge on each drawer and I slowly applied the fabric.  I used the Mod Podge Decoupage Kit (that I got from Michael's a while back and includes a roller thingy and a flat tool  that you use to get out any air bubbles) to make sure that the fabric was applied evenly and without any air bubbles.  Again, I didn't worry too much about the edges.  This took about 20-25 minutes for each drawer.  Not fun, but the results are awesome.  Then I applied a thin off white ribbon around the edge using a hot glue gun.

I waited about 24 hours and then I sealed the whole thing with another layer of Mod Podge.  This time I diluted it slightly with water (about 2/3 Mod Podge, 1/3 water) and again used a sponge brush to saturate the whole face of the drawer.  While that started to dry, I painted the fronts of the small drawer and door (for the right side of the dresser) an off-white color (to match the ribbon).  I had considered applying fabric to these as well, but I thought that would be a little overwhelming.

The last step was to put on the new knobs I got (just clear acrylic ones; I got them at Target) and bring the whole thing upstairs!  Since I'm broken (damn back problems), I was lucky enough that Navy Wife Kim and her 12 year old son were willing to carry it upstairs, et voila...

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Have I mentioned I love this thing???

Don't worry, I am getting a cover for the changing pad!  The one I want is currently back-ordered though:

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It has elephants and it's the perfect colors!!!  I'm super excited.  And you'll notice the left hand side is just a big boring gray space:

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Eventually I plan on either placing a diaper pail there, or I might just hang a large wet bag (which is what you keep dirty cloth diapers in until you wash them) off a hook there.  I'm thinking either finding a cool patterned wet bag or just going with a plain yellow one (to match my crib).

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the little white dog thing is a night light.  I got it from Marshall's.  It can glow in a variety of colors and is actually portable (it's sitting on the charging base in the pictures).  I think it's precious and it matches my totally general "theme" - which is animals (any animal, lol) and blue, green, and orange, haha.

So, my first project for "decorate the nursery month" is officially done!  Next up is my DIY mobile, which I'm also very excited about (and shouldn't take nearly as long as the dresser did).  If you have any questions about how I completed the dresser, ask away, and of course I'll never turn down compliments on my work...

Until next time...