A Furniture Rescue

Elliott and Henry share a room. They are buddies most of the time, but Elliott now has lots of little 'treasures' that Henry can't keep his hands off of. We knew Elliott was going to need a safe place to keep his precious little collection of random objects...and I had my eyes on a sorry looking dresser Michael was using in the basement.

This sad wood cabinet had become a place to store sandpaper. (Michael has quite an impressive assortment of sandpaper which filled the dresser, plus an entire plastic bin.) The top drawer had come apart and the wood was in rough shape. Spiders had made quite a little home inside the furniture, too. Ick!

But I saw potential and wanted to rescue the piece and bring some life back to it. In August we finally began the project and Elliott did most of the work!

Before:

There are four 'naughty' little ones in our house...but 'knotty' style furniture isn't a fit for us. Dresser...prepare to be painted.

But first everything needed a good sanding, and some repair work.

Then came the primer. Elliott had fun spraying it. (we used black primer because the new finish would be dark)

 And then some paint...

 Together we chose the new drawer pulls and Elliott got to help drill the holes for them.

We also lined each drawer with fun paper. They all had a different design chosen by Elliott.

And here is the finished dresser in Elliott's room. It doubles as his nightstand.

We should probably find a way to lock one of the drawers for Elliott's most prized possessions...since Henry can still climb up on his bed and get to the top drawer. But the extra space is great and Elliott is really proud that he got to help.

I've heard rumors that someone in Michael's family (Nancy?) might have this dresser's twin. If you do and you'd consider letting me buy it from you, let me know. Eventually I want to use two of these as the base for a tall desk for the boys. I could get addicted to this idea of re-purposing furniture.