Dresser Revamp.

I finished the dresser (mostly, like 99%). It's not perfect but it looks so much better than before. And it was my first major refinishing project. I spray painted the outside white after patching the wood, but I left the faux bois laminate on the top as is. The edge got a little funny, so at some point I will go back and clean that up. I don't really want to paint the laminate, simply because I don't think it will be as durable.

The drawer fronts and legs I refinished following this tutorial. The finish had become very grey. I was thrilled at how amazing it looks now. The wood adsorbed a crazy amount of the Feed N' Wax.

I also repainted our guest bedroom, where the dresser is. My husband really can't tell the difference. It's still beige, so not a huge change, but it no longer picks up that horrid Band-Aid pink tone during certain times of the day. Normally neutrals aren't really my thing, but I'm actually kind of loving it. I'm planning to do the entire room in white, wood, and a touch of black (and maybe some metal, like a vintage fan).

There's a Hole.

Well, after bugging him for a month or so, my husband got started on some of the updates for our guest bathroom. He scored some free satin nickel hardware from work.

He took down the builder grade mirror, only to reveal a fist-sized hole in the wall with no obvious purpose, except maybe access to the pipe? Since the new mirror is smaller and doesn't cover the hole, it has to be patched, textured and painted.

There was also apparently no junction box or stud installed in the wall for the light to attach to, but he managed to install the new light fixture we got on sale at Lowe's:

 

It is soooo much better than the ugly thing that was up there before, which looked like this only really dingy with the chrome worn off in places. It had been there since the house was built 15 years ago, judging by the white rectangle left behind once we removed it.

Kitchen Greens.

Well the shelves above the stove are now home to the majority of my houseplants. Little kitty cat figured out how to get up on the top of the fridge and massacred them, so to save the new ones I just got (and keep her from poisoning herself), I put them over here, which is just high enough she can't reach, unlike the other side. I actually am kinda loving all the greenery. If she couldn't reach the other side via the fridge, I would totally replace all the wine bottles with plants instead.

Refinishing the Dresser.

I've stripped and sanded the entire thing (except the legs, those are last), patched the missing chunks on the sides, and now I've primed the main part. I'm gonna paint it white with an oil-based paint (probably spraypaint) and leave the drawers the wood tone. They have some chips, but they were overall in much better condition than the rest of the dresser. We'll consider the wear and tear as "character". I was going to paint the legs white also, but I'm kinda digging the wood tone. The top is a plastic laminate or something, I decided it would be easiest to just leave it as is.

It looked like this before:

The photo hides a lot of the damage it has, and you can't tell that the finish was very greyed and sad-looking, especially compared to our other vintage pieces.

The Office: Take Two.

Just a few small adjustments. I'm hardly ever 100% satisfied the first time a room is 'complete'. That stool was horribly uncomfortable to use, so I spraypainted my folding chair espresso brown and put an IKEA lambskin on it for some cushion. Eventually I will get a real office chair, but it is really difficult to find one that is comfortable, affordable, and aesthetically pleasing.

I exchanged the colored cups for white ones. I kind of miss the pop of color though. And I downloaded a new screensaver.

I really wasn't loving how the Expedit looked in conjunction with the desk and buffet, but I still needed the storage, so I put it in the closet and moved the filing cabinet out. It's more efficient this way also since I keep a lot of my office supplies in the top drawers - stationary, stapler, staples, pencil lead and pen refills, etc. And it coordinates pretty well with the Crate and Barrel desk even though it's from IKEA (Effektiv, in case you were wondering).

I had to replace my curtains since the kitten decided to mess with them and being a very thin cotton, they just looked trashed. I used the curtains from the dining room that had shrunk a couple inches after I washed them (yes, I washed them before hemming, but they shrunk again). I also installed a proper curtain rod and holdback hook.

 

  

You can see the closet is still pastel blue from the previous owner. Her daughter's growth chart is drawn on the wall too, in permanent marker, but you can't see it in this photo.

The buffet is still the same.

Since the bookcase is in the closet, I moved my reference textbooks to the printer table and put the sewing machine, which is rarely used, in the closet as well.

Overall I'm much happier with it now, both aesthetically and functionally. We've also been building more shelving for the laundry room, so I'll get that posted after I finish the touch up paint and get everything organized.

P.S. I was featured as a Workspace of the Week on Unclutter.com! I was pleasantly surprised to find out, and it was amusing to read the entry as I had only added the photo of the desk and floating shelves to the Flickr group, and Erin was trying to figure out what was going on as far as a filing system (digital or analog). Then there's the comments, with almost everyone assuming EVERYTHING came from IKEA. I was really contemplating buying a cheap office chair there, but I decided against it. I love IKEA but I certainly don't want to look like I live in an IKEA showroom.