Matt, Rachel, and Cadence: Going Green

We've gone green! Literally! No, it isn't us being environmentally conscious, although we are! (we recycle, reuse bags, use fabric ones, come on, we're not complete wasters!!!)

Matt and I embarked on our biggest (and last!!!) baby project and in only 24 hours time, got it done and fabulous!

Furniture shopping for baby or adults can be challenging, particularly with "today's" prices and quality of craftsmanship. Initially in registering for our furniture, we decided to make it easy and register for a pretty simple looking dresser.....(see left) Eh, nothing to write home about. It certainly would have been functional, but the more we thought about it, the more we figured we'd be spending a few hundred dollars unnecessarily (might as well spend that on baby clothes, right? Or personal trainers? Or homeowner's insurance if we're getting really realistic), and we weren't sure if the quality of the wood and neither one of us really wanted to put another item together with nuts and bolts. Sooooooooooo, we got creative!

In our storage unit, amidst skis, golf clubs, a head board, boxes upon boxes of the most random stuff you can imagine, crutches, file cabinets, our Christmas tree, yadda yadda yadda was an old antique looking dresser that Matt's parents had bought 30 some odd years ago when they were in California. JACKPOT! The dresser had been beautifully made and in spectacular condition. Sure there were a few scratches here and there, but with 30 year old furniture, what do you expect? (yes, its 30, the dresser is older than me, lets all move on) . While the dresser looked great, I wasn't a fan of the cherry colored finish, as neutral as it was, it just wouldn't have looked right in the baby's room (and the rest of our house for that matter) where we have dark, espresso colored wood. Project time! We decided we'd revamp and refinish the dresser. Since there was a light layer of finish on the wood, we figured we'd sand it down and paint over it with an oil based baint similar in color to our crib and changing table. We weren't overly thrilled with the thought of using oil based paints so in doing research at Home Depot we were given the idea of trying spray paint..... what an idea it was! Matt thought bringing some more color to the room would be a good idea and to be honest, I was hesitant to have a green dresser but I figured, he's got vision, lets just go with it. (yes, mom, I am go with the flow!) We bought all of our sanding and painting needs and also bought new hardware for the drawers, a very nice brushed steel that looks awesome with the paint.

So off to the in-law's (aka Grandma and Grandpa or whatever they're deciding to be called when the baby arrives) we went ready to trash their garage. Our project began pretty simply, removing hardware, sanding fronts of drawers and the various sides to the dresser. Luckily, as stated before, not much sanding was necessary. We got everything sanded and washed a bit and we hit it with apple green spray paint. I continue to be amazed at how easy of a project this essentially was! For anyone who needs to refinish furniture, spray paint is the way to go! There are such good quality paints now it is nothing like you expect grafiti to look like, which is what I was envisioning for our daughter's room... The paint we got was "satin" finish and looks like we labored for a long time painting it, and all after one coat! We've definately been pleased with the progress we've made in essentially little time. Ironically, even the hardware we chose fit the holes from the initial peices, all except a few drawers where we had to do some drilling, although you'd never know by seeing the finished product.

It was really fun (maybe more so for me than for Matt) to do a project together, especially since Matt has long proclaimed that he's not a project guy, I'm pretty sure that stems from mild PTSD from another life. :) The dresser came together beautifully and from start to finish was a mere 24 hours. (that being said, its still drying a bit in the next room). Its neat to be so pleased with a finished product and know that we only spent $100 on this, primarily because the hardware was $5 each. Money well spent!

This dresser is similar to ours but from Pottery Barn Kids... I'm not one to knock PBkids, it is afterall where we got our crib bedding. Sure this dresser looks nice, decent amount of drawers, seemingly well made, as it should be for $899!!!!!!

So to that I say, Pottery Barn Schmottery Barn! Take a look at our project!