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Charlotte has the worst time keeping her room neat and the culprit is all those darn clothes! She just has too many. Or maybe (and so my thought process went today) she doesn't have enough storage space. Is it possible that one big dresser and one smallish dresser are just not enough for one teenager? Hmm!
The entire project took me about three hours.
So, I decided to get her another dresser. Since my show over the weekend was less than spectacular in the money-making arena (see last entry), I decided to go on the cheap and do some more Asian shabby-chic. I did her whole room that way and it's pretty spiffy if I do say so myself. Red painted walls with framed kosode decorating them, and I painted my old giant storage dresser (it's HUGE and blocky) black with gold bamboo all over it. The floor is carpeted with a plush rug that's a pale straw color, and the windows have bamboo roman-style shades. Add a fake-cheap tansu nightstand and some paper lanterns and voila! (or banzai!, perhaps), instant perfect Asian-looking room for a teen.
So, the first step was to find a decent dresser. Salvation Army was no good...everything they had was Colonial-looking and awful. Likewise Goodwill. They only had one dresser and the drawers were broken...and they still wanted forty bucks for it. I found what I was looking for at AmVets. Simple in design, modern-looking, not broken, and made of real wood. It cost me all of twelve dollars! I loaded it into my car with some difficulty (though real wood is nowhere near as heavy as that awful fake pressboard stuff...eww), made a quick stop at a Valu hardware store in the same plaza for paint and new knobs, and headed home with my prize.
Here it is. I actually thought to get a picture of it "before".
It needed a little cleaning with the 409, but the inside was in awesome shape and still smelled like good clean wood.
The drawers are probably pine, but the frame is certainly oak.
See how nice and clean it is? I gave it a swipe of watered-down Murphy's oil soap just to make it smell even better. I can't believe I got this for just 12.00!
So I removed the crappy-looking hardware and sanded it very lightly (carefully, because the veneer was very thin, but it WAS real wood so that's a good thing) and painted it with Rustoleum gold paint. One step and no priming needed, but that stuff is NASTY with a capital "N". It ends up looking like hammered gold, so it has an interesting distressed quality...I love effect paints even though they stink something awful. This stuff smelled like turbo-powered nail polish. But, it dries fast and it's quick and easy.
Once that dried a bit, I painted branches in a sumi-e style with some leftover black latex paint from my last project. I have to admit here that I've NEVER studied Sumi-e formally (and it shows), but I think I got the effect I wanted. I told Char "I think they're willow saplings"...anyway that's how they feel. I added butterflies (nothing more than dashes of color...bright "x"es of red paint) which I did with leftover paint from Char's walls.
Finished.
I found these GREAT black iron drawer knobs at Valu...very basic and just the look I wanted. Not Colonial...minimalist. I had to use knobs instead of handles on the lower drawers (the old handles were an odd size & I didn't want to re-drill any holes), but I like the way it looks anyway.
This was the first side I painted...
I was just getting a feel for it & it shows.
I did the front last...
The last dresser I did with the bamboo taught me to never paint the drawers separately. The design's better if it flows naturally from drawer to drawer.
I even painted a branch across the top...
Is that too kitschy? It probably is but *shrug* this is just a hobby of mine so I guess that I'm allowed to indulge myself.
There are fourteen butterflies, because Char is fourteen dontcha know (and if THAT isn't adorable then I don't know what is). I signed it inside on the frame, "14 Butterflies", with my name and the date, and once it dried we moved it into Char's room. She hasn't said too much, but she's been up there all night (odd for her...she's not the type that likes to be alone in her room) happily arranging her clothes in it, setting her favorite lamp on it (it is black wrought-iron in the shape of a spare branch with one leaf on it and it matches perfectly), and actually (here's the kicker) cleaning her room! I think she likes it. :-)
So, the first step was to find a decent dresser. Salvation Army was no good...everything they had was Colonial-looking and awful. Likewise Goodwill. They only had one dresser and the drawers were broken...and they still wanted forty bucks for it. I found what I was looking for at AmVets. Simple in design, modern-looking, not broken, and made of real wood. It cost me all of twelve dollars! I loaded it into my car with some difficulty (though real wood is nowhere near as heavy as that awful fake pressboard stuff...eww), made a quick stop at a Valu hardware store in the same plaza for paint and new knobs, and headed home with my prize.
Here it is. I actually thought to get a picture of it "before".
It needed a little cleaning with the 409, but the inside was in awesome shape and still smelled like good clean wood.
The drawers are probably pine, but the frame is certainly oak.
See how nice and clean it is? I gave it a swipe of watered-down Murphy's oil soap just to make it smell even better. I can't believe I got this for just 12.00!
So I removed the crappy-looking hardware and sanded it very lightly (carefully, because the veneer was very thin, but it WAS real wood so that's a good thing) and painted it with Rustoleum gold paint. One step and no priming needed, but that stuff is NASTY with a capital "N". It ends up looking like hammered gold, so it has an interesting distressed quality...I love effect paints even though they stink something awful. This stuff smelled like turbo-powered nail polish. But, it dries fast and it's quick and easy.
Once that dried a bit, I painted branches in a sumi-e style with some leftover black latex paint from my last project. I have to admit here that I've NEVER studied Sumi-e formally (and it shows), but I think I got the effect I wanted. I told Char "I think they're willow saplings"...anyway that's how they feel. I added butterflies (nothing more than dashes of color...bright "x"es of red paint) which I did with leftover paint from Char's walls.
Finished.
I found these GREAT black iron drawer knobs at Valu...very basic and just the look I wanted. Not Colonial...minimalist. I had to use knobs instead of handles on the lower drawers (the old handles were an odd size & I didn't want to re-drill any holes), but I like the way it looks anyway.
This was the first side I painted...
I was just getting a feel for it & it shows.
I did the front last...
The last dresser I did with the bamboo taught me to never paint the drawers separately. The design's better if it flows naturally from drawer to drawer.
I even painted a branch across the top...
Is that too kitschy? It probably is but *shrug* this is just a hobby of mine so I guess that I'm allowed to indulge myself.
There are fourteen butterflies, because Char is fourteen dontcha know (and if THAT isn't adorable then I don't know what is). I signed it inside on the frame, "14 Butterflies", with my name and the date, and once it dried we moved it into Char's room. She hasn't said too much, but she's been up there all night (odd for her...she's not the type that likes to be alone in her room) happily arranging her clothes in it, setting her favorite lamp on it (it is black wrought-iron in the shape of a spare branch with one leaf on it and it matches perfectly), and actually (here's the kicker) cleaning her room! I think she likes it. :-)
The entire project took me about three hours.
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From:
Too Many Clothes and Not Enough Dressers
Seriously, that dresser looks great. I can hardly wait until you get out here and we can do my sign projects! And picnic in the redwoods and go to the beach, and go see the otters, sea lions, dolphins, humpbacks and blues!
PS the first blue whale was spotted just yesterday, only 2.5 mi off the coast!!!!
From:
Re: Too Many Clothes and Not Enough Dressers
She loves her clothes by the way...the sandals are a huge hit.