DIY: Dresser

I am sure I will run out of DIY projects to share soon. I'm not sure why I am clumping them up on my blog. Anyway, this is my grandparent's dresser that we got for free. We needed something for the second bedroom so we were really excited to get a chance to do another DIY project!

I did have pictures of the dresser before we took the handles off, but I lost them. Surprise, surprise. This picture is from Jacob's phone.

We first decided that we wanted to change the entire top. It was quite a process to get the top off which consisted of prying, sweating, gnashing of teeth, convulsing, screaming, drooling, etc. I think you get the idea.

As you can see, the top is leaning against the wall. The mirror that was attached to the back of the dresser is on the right. We decided quickly that we wanted them separate.

We went to Lowe's and got one long piece of wood and got them to cut it. They cut it for free! How great is that? We did have to walk around with said long piece of wood in hand looking for someone to help us for quite some time, but it all worked out.

Boom! Do you like my artsy wood pictures?

Also, to take the top off, we had to pry the back off.

As I was looking through my pictures, I realized I was extremely terrible at taking pictures of each step. Instead, I took a lot of pictures of one step. I am really not catching on to this blog trend quite as quickly as I had hoped, obviously.

So, anyway, since I don't have another picture of any other step, I will just go ahead and show the final product.

We spray painted the whole thing with a couple of coats of green (multiple layers of light coats is key here). We spent a lot of time in the store picking out a color. I had Tan in hand for a while and second guessed myself after long walks in the aisle and went on a whim with the green. At this point, I might have started freaking out and sweating profusely getting nervous about my choice. I think it turned out just fine, though. Thank goodness I have a husband who deals with my lack of confident decision-making and loves me in spite of it.

Once it was painted, I sanded all the corners and sides. We also added hardware that we purchased from Lowe's.

We stained the top the same color as the Kitchen Table that we redid.

In college I bought this $6.00 lamp from Goodwill because... come on it was six bucks! It had crystals hanging down from it but Jacob decided it was too girly so we took them off. I have to agree, the crystals did look cheap (keep it mind it was a cheap lamp, however).

I bought a shade at Target for it. I took all of the burlap lamp shades down from the top shelf and put them on the ground individually to see which was the nicest. If there is a selection, you want the best of them... am I right, or am I right? I love the whole look. For a total of $16.00, I love it even more.

Jacob's Dad had this antique ruler that he was selling. I just happened to mention that I loved it and he gave it to us! God bless that sweet man!

And finally, I bought an antique "locker" from the store that I mentioned before to complete the decorations for now.

So here is the complete look, at least for now it is the complete look. It is definitely not finished, but we are using what we have.

Also, keep checking in because I should have some of the wedding pictures that I took last weekend posted by the end of this week!