Better After

Our latest project was a new dresser for Andrew. We really wanted this Land of Nod dresser (of course only $799).


We looked for weeks (maybe months) to find something more a bit more financially manageable through both Craigslist postings and Goodwill stores. Finally last Saturday--as we were beginning to give up hope--we found this tall pine dresser for $35 at Goodwill. We were lucky enough to be standing right there when they brought it out and said "we'll take it!" Our fabulous friend Summer was kind enough to drive out and help us transport it home.

BEFORE

We decided the dresser would look best in a light gray blue. We opted for spray paint (as opposed to brush painting), so we could finish it in one day. We found Rust-oleum's "Slate Blue" spray paint at Home Depot. We used the same brand's gray primer to prep. Below is a pic of Mike spraying the dresser on the grass in the back of our condos--we have no yard or garage of our own.

DURING

After painting, the dresser needed a bit of work. First, if you notice the clamp on the bottom left, there was a split in the wood that Mike glued back on with Gorilla Glue. Second, the dresser was a little wobbly, so we bought a new piece of 1/2 inch plywood and screwed it onto the back (that wasn't cheap--$18 at Home Depot--but it was worth it to maintain the structural integrity). Lastly, we were also trying to decide whether to keep the wood dresser knobs or find new ones.

We left the dresser to air out in our room for a few days so it didn't pollute Andrew's room with paint fumes (it takes a few days).

Today we finally changed the knobs and added it to Andrew's room (see below). It is such an improvement from his previous dresser. He was using a broken one from Kmart that Mike had from his bachelor days.

AFTER

The pictures from my iPhone aren't fabulous, but the blue color is actually really cool in person. We are happy to finally be finished with Andrew's room--until the next baby comes!

Before and After

My good friend Katie is great at updating old furniture. Mike and I have decided to replace our old flimsy Ikea stuff with solid, good quality furniture that will last, however we don't have a big budget to work with.
Katie showed me some fun blogs (Better After and All Things Thrifty ) which give tons of good ideas and tutorials on how to update your furniture on a budget. Katie also helped me realize that my very first project should be something small and more manageable.

Mike & I have been using Ikea tables as nightstands for almost four years now, so I figured nightstands would be a good place to start. I found the above nightstands at Goodwill for $6 each.

BEFORE

First I primed them (no sanding needed according to this tutorial). The trick here is to prime them with a tinted gray since I was planning on painting them a darker color.
Second I painted them. I painted them a dark brown/black that I found in the Martha Stewart paint collection. The first coat was still too brown, so I took the paint back to Home Depot and they darkened with more black it for free.

AFTER

I went through several sets of drawer pulls (I was looking for ring pulls which are hard to find--first I ordered some online but they were the wrong color, then I went to a specialty hardware store but those weren't quite right either). I finally gave up on the ring pull idea and ended up with these ovals for $3 at Home Depot.

Voila! New nightstands.

Before and After

Mike and I have needed new dining chairs forever. The only problem is that most of the ones we liked were $250 each (who has the money for that?). So after checking out a few blog tutorials, we thought we'd try our hand in redoing some old ones we found on craigslist.

We used these Pottery Barn chairs as our inspiration.

Here are the chairs we found off craigslist for $75. We thought we would just have to put new fabric on (cheaper redo), but the foam inside was so bad we had to redo the entire seat (more $). We recommend anyone doing this project to inspect the foam better before you buy the chairs! But actually we learned a lot, and had fun stapling on all the foam. Now these seats are going to last another 15 years.

During the process:
We (aka Mike) spray painted the chairs with Krylon's Ivory. Picking the fabric was a bit harder.

We knew we wanted a fabric that was green and white, and ended up getting two types from fabric.com (and returned the one we didn't like). Both fabrics were Waverly Sun N Shade, which is an outdoor fabric that is Teflon-coated, breathable, holds up to harsh sunlight, and resists mold, mildew, soil and stains. I found them for about $7 a yard.

Here is the final product.

In this last picture you can see our old black Ikea chairs against the window (what do we do with them now?).
Lastly, we will put a finishing wax on and screw the seats in, and soon we'll have a new dining room.

Getting Organized Week #2: Master bedroom

So our "getting organized" group picked the master bedroom for the second week.

There are still so many things I need to organize and update (ex. I wish we could paint the walls! I wish we had a bigger dresser! I need to get rid of our ghetto Ikea desk!), but give the time I had I just had to make do.

BEFORE

Such a mess (sigh).

AFTER

I needed a bigger piece of artwork for the dresser (below), but my challenge was how do I do it for free and in less than 15 minutes? I also wanted to do something Mike would love seeing every morning.


I found an extra frame laying around ($9.66 Walmart special). I ripped out river rafting pictures from Mike's NG Adventure magazine, and then taped a few of our own pics of our last rafting trip on top. I call it "Ode to Mike." Mike loves it, and I did it for free in 10 minutes (see above).

I found our nightstands (below) at Goodwill for $6 each. I painted them and surprisingly they don't look too bad. I still need to find the right hardware, but I have a hard time paying more for the hardware than I did for the nightstands.

I think we rest better at night with a clean master bedroom. Now the challenge is keeping it clean!