Changing Table/Dresser Makeover

Hi Friends! Sorry it's been a while since my last post. So may things have been happening. First, I broke my right pinky playing Ultimate Frisbee. Oops! That kept me from picking up a paint brush for a while.

AND on May 28th, my sister, Claire, gave birth to Fletcher Annabelle Brown. Yes, her name is Fletcher, which is awesome and potentially confusing. It's our family's last name and my sister and her husband thought it would be a nice way to use both surnames. I'm slightly sad I didn't have a baby first so I could have used the name. Also, if you have a baby and the nurse asks whether you want the bow on the hat, I vote bow all the way.

So what have I been doing with myself? All the fun jobs of an aunt, like burping, changing, holding, marveling, and generally "loving every minute with this damn crew(great quote from The Royal Tenenbaums)." So on top of all this baby rearing, my sister and her husband were in the midst of a kitchen remodel. As a result, they lived with my parents for the first three months of Fletcher's life, and now they are finally moving back in. By the way, I highly suggest living with family with a newborn-- lots of people who want to help!
One of things Claire and I got super excited about was planning the nursery. One of my good friends, Kathy, was moving out and donated some furniture to me for my refurbishing addiction. Thanks Kathy! One of the pieces was a sturdy wood dresser that is the perfect height for a changing table.

It was fairly plain, so it was a great canvas for doing something more fun for a baby's room. I pondered many ideas, but knew that I wanted to introduce color in an interesting way. Finally, with the help of Claire's approval, I decided on the design. Check out some of my rough sketches below.

First step was sanding the dresser. After removing the old varnish, I found that I really liked the coloring of the natural wood, so I wouldn't be staining the drawer fronts or the top. Next, I painted the frame of the dresser with Annie Sloan's Pure White chalk paint and sealed it with Annie Sloan's clear wax. The next step was the trickiest-- measuring and taping out the lines for the design on the drawer fronts. That took a lot of patience and the help of a patient husband, who politely pointed out when my lines weren't matching up right. When I was finally satisfied with the lines, I jumped into painting. I used my stash of various chalk paints and mixed my own pastel colors of pink, blue and turquoise. After painting a few coats of the colors, I painted a primer on the other lines that I was going to spray paint GOLD. Yay!

Before I could spray paint, I needed to cover the freshly painted pastel colored lines. Should I have done those steps backwards? Perhaps. But spray painting gold and then pulling off all the tape was super satisfying (except for when I found that the paint had seeped under the tape, argh! I took a box cutter to scrape away the extra paint and was good to go).

The final step was sealing the wood with Polycrylic and we were ready to bring it over to my sister's house. So here's the big reveal. It looks awfully cute in the nursery, and much more cute with Fletcher laying on top. One of Fletcher's favorite things in the world is getting changed. If she's in a sour mood, the quickest way to put a smile on her face is to put her on the changing table!

And just so you know she wasn't laying there by herself, thinking, 'Why isn't anyone changing my diaper?', here she is with mom.

The felt bunting is a leftover homemade decoration from our Double Wedding. And the pretty bird painting is by an Italian artist named Irene. You can purchase her original watercolors on etsy.

I hope you noticed the fun, freshly painted pink door. The rest of the room was painted white, except for one wall that was painted with black chalkboard paint. I look forward to revealing the rest of the room when it is all set up. Bye for now!