5 weekends of naps, 1 MTO & $140

I posted this a while back on my personal blog, but I am now transferring it here as one of my completed projects! I have no idea why it is publishing with all caps when in my perview mode it is with upper and lower cases.

Last summer our street had a neighborhood yard sale. Of course, baby and I had to go check it out. I had been on the look out for a dresser to overhaul and I had actually already bought one from Craig’s List a month prior for $45, delivered, but it turned out not to be what I was looking for. Well, as my son and I were strolling around with a few toys we purchased waiting for us a few houses away, we came across a Mid Century Modern Danish dresser that was in dire need of a reno! My heart started beating fast and I raced to find the owner to ask how much it was. She said it was $5 and since I had $4 one dollar bills, she gave it to me for four buckaroos! Later that day, some men brought it down to me in a trailer and set it on top of the other dresser I bought in the garage. My heart was beating even harder and faster now because I knew I would have a mad husband to placate when he pulled into the garage after getting home from work that night--but I had to have it, you see.
The dresser sat there for a month as I pondered over my many ideas of how to revamp it. It sat there a few weeks more after I decided I wanted to face it with mirror. Then in July of last year I priced mirrors and compared glass to acrylic. A man came over to measure it from the Glass Doctor and I placed my order (for glass, not acrylic, since it scratches easily).
One weekend in August I decided to start my mission. I put baby down for a nap and raced to the garage with my grubbies on and started stripping the paint away. Then, right before I thought he would wake up, I raced to take a shower so I would not smell of that toxic remover. This process continued for the sanding--and more sanding--and even more sanding for several weeks. Then on to staining (x2) and finally the polyurethane (x2). Many naps and showers later, I was ready to apply the mastic to the dresser and stick the mirrors on. Then after baby went to bed, hubby helped me lug it up the stairs to the guest room (I wanted it in the downstairs entry but hubby-the-design-guru did not concur). So after 5 weeks of naps, an MTO (cost cutting mandatory time off from the job) when my lovely mom watched baby, and $140 later, it was finally done! Now, maybe I will do something with that other dresser in the garage after all!

more scraping...

a dirty job...

getting there...

Sanding...
more sanding...

done sanding!

1st coat of stain
2nd coat and poly

Adding the mirrors...

Mission Accomplished!

posted by april at 9/13/2009 4 comments