Summer Projects

I started this post at the beginning of the summer and kept it as a draft and added to it as I checked projects off my list. Well it's wintertime now and the crib still isn't finished (it's lacking a coat of polycrylic) [she sleeps in a cradle in our room for now] but these other projects are finished! Guess I should share it despite it being 6 months late now.

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This time last year I was neck deep in painting centerpieces and DIY projects for the wedding. My what can change in a year!! This summer I'm belly deep in painting furniture and trying to get the nursery pulled together before I get too big to do anything productive. I love painting, furniture in particular. However, 2 of the 4 pieces on my to-paint list are not easy tasks. The crib and changing table have so many slats, grooves, rounded edges and more. They are time consuming. The other 2 items are dressers. We have decided to use Andrew's dresser in Hannah's room. This dresser was actually his grandmother's and has been passed down in the family for a few generations now. We liked the idea of keeping with that tradition and giving Hannah a piece of history from her great grandmother. Only downside is the dresser is a medium-dark stain, not the sweet baby girl vibe I had in mind. No worries, just paint it!

Of course I forgot to take the before pictures before I actually started painting the drawers. Whoops! Please excuse our mess of a sun room aka my work shop.

Before

 After!

The soft white and pale pink drawers are just what I was looking for to keep her room soft and sweet, but with a little bit of color. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The paint was Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White and Antoinette (pink).

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To replace a dresser for Andrew, we found a nice, larger piece off craigslist that is in great condition, but in desperate need of a few coats of paint. Since I didn't want to paint it white, and couldn't justify buying another quart of ASCP (it's expensive!), I went the diy route and made my own chalk paint. It didn't turn out as chalky as it maybe should have, but live and learn. I like the color and think it turned out pretty well. One day I'll finish the other, mismatched dresser in our room to fit, but it's at the bottom of the priority list right now.

Andrew's newly finished dresser. Much better than the sparse coat of white spray paint!

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Also on the list is the changing table we got off of Craigslist. It started out like the pic on the left,

And ended like the photo on the right!

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The light fixture in the nursery was old, yellowing and cracked, so it needed to go. Trouble with living in an older trailer is that it's pretty hard to find new items that fit and work with the older set up. I would have been ok with just a new light cover, but we couldn't find one at our local hardware store, so Andrew decided to replace the whole thing. I wasn't so keen on this idea at first. To be honest, I was pretty skeptical. I love my husband, but his electrical skills hadn't been put to the test in our marriage yet. Worst fear was for him to take apart the existing light and not be able to put it back together. That would leave an unhappy wife, displeased land lord and a baby in the dark! He was more confident than me, so I just left the room and let him go for it.

Before

 During - yikes!

 After!

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Lastly is the Craigslist crib. It was a score but I hate the oak color.

At some point we will finish the crib. It'll have to be before too long because Hannah will outgrow her cradle in a couple of months! But the white turned out really well. It will match the changing table.