Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Dresser

A long time ago my sister bought this dresser. Of course it's from Ikea and you can leave it as a wood finish or you can stain/paint it. When she gave it to me I decided that I was going to paint it bright orange, yellow and green. It didn't turn out the way I had hoped and when she got it back she painted it black on top and had some sort of idea for it, but never got around to finishing it. I traded her a desk that I didn't need anymore for the dresser again. You all know the rules...one in one out! In order to get the dresser again I had to get rid of something and Ella could use the desk! A fair trade.

I had been planning on doing something with it for a long time now but had no idea what I wanted to do. I had a subscription to Craft Magazine and in the very back of one issue was an article about a dresser. This was an older dresser and was left outside for the taking. The new owner stripped it, taped it and painted it. I loved the idea so much I copied it. With several days of fair warning Scott helped me take it out back and I began a seven hour epic stripping, sanding, taping, spray painting, running to the store for more supplies and spray painting. Phew!

The original crafter, and I apologize that I don't have the magazine with me as I write this, taped a tree onto the surface of the bare wood, then covered the whole thing in white paint. When it was dry she removed the painters tape to reveal a beautiful tree in the front. Now, I am not very artsy in the artsy sense of the word so I pretty much copied her design as best I could.

And here is the finished project! I just love it and have even more plans for this dresser in the near future. I plan to get some pink paint and some corks to make little cherry blossom-like circles on it for some leaves. On the one end that faces the door to the room my sister has agreed to paint a branch with a rope swing on it and a little girl silhouette. As it is right now I think it looks great and can't wait to finish it off within the next few weeks!

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