One Person's Trash...

Is now my Dresser!!!

Before we moved into our house my brain started to spin with ideas on how to solve our biggest issue (in my eyes)... closet space! From the first time that we walked through our house, we both knew that the little broom sized closet in what was to be our master bedroom was not going to cut it. Even though we had agreed that B (my boyfriend) was going to take the small closet, while I made use of the larger closet in the second bedroom, we knew that we were lacking in clothes storage.

While living in our apartment we had used the dresser that I had, had at my parents since childhood, and we agreed that since it didn't fit with the feel of our house, it wouldn't come with us. This of course left us with an issue - where would we find affordable dressers that would fit with the cottage feel of our new little house? The hunt was officially on!

I endlessly scoured websites and visited our local goodwill to see if anything caught my interest, but no luck. Finally, one Friday evening our prayers were answered... by the garbage dumpsters behind our building. While bringing the dog in from a walk, B happened upon an old dresser left for the dump by one of the other residents in our building. When he first showed me his find, all I could think was how ugly the sad looking dresser was. The finish was absolutely destroyed, the hardware was broken and some pieces even missing and there were problems with a couple of the drawers and the back. After giving myself a little time to look over it throughly, I was able to see the hidden potential. Together, we loaded the ugly dresser into B's truck and brought it along to my parents (a.k.a our temporary storage facility/workshop) to give it a new face lift.

We took a little longer than we anticipated to decide what to do with the dresser, and with less than a month left until the big move we knew it was time to get to work. We started by sanding down the old dresser, prepping it for a nice fresh coat of paint. B then took a chisel and removed the beading detail that I hated on the smaller drawers. When all that was said and done, it was time to get the paint on the dresser.

I had originally hoped to find little crystal or glass knobs for this piece, but I couldn't find any and ended up being really happy with the black ones we picked. The combination of the red and black reminded me of a barn which, in a crazy kind of way, I thought would fit in our cottage style home. The black handles also inspired me to use some left over high gloss black paint that my Dad had laying around to fill in the detail on the middle drawer. It was that last bit that I think really brought the whole piece together.

This dresser is now in our second bedroom/my dressing room and is definitely the focal point. We have a little work to do fixing one of the drawers and replacing the backing - but luckily B is handy and both him and my Dad always have extra wood laying around. So we already have the materials.... it's just a matter of time!

Dresser: FREE

Paint & Hardware: $27.22

Having a one of a kind dresser that we refinished: Priceless!!