This isn’t a publish about infants sleeping in dresser drawers, nonetheless you wouldn’t be faulted for pondering so. It’s nonetheless the first joke of us make when talking about welcoming a child proper right into a small residence. No, blame it on spring cleaning and getting the place ready for our impending sublet, nonetheless I’ve been on an residence enchancment kick as of late.
Dresser drawer enhancements might come all through as a result of the least obligatory of all changes one would possibly make to a home, nonetheless sometimes tiny tweaks to a piece of furnishings are definitely exactly what make all the distinction. And when embracing classic and basic furnishings as an alternative of buying brand-new, sometimes quite a lot of magnificence upgrades can take one factor from feeling outdated (or plain yucky) to loveable.
One among my distinctive blogger associates, Barb Blairhas merely revealed her second e-book, Furnishings Makeovers. It’s an ode to giving outdated furnishings new life and as I paged by her fairly amount a month or so up to now, I acquired renewed vitality to lastly finish a enterprise that I’d begun once more as soon as we lived in North Carolina.
James and I bought our little Eastlake-style dressers low price; merely $75 for the pair. It was most likely probably the most we’d ever spent on furnishings and we’d wanted to advertise a novel, uglier dresser to make room and scrape collectively the cash. We printed out Mapquest directions (as you most likely did), and drove fifteen miles exterior of metropolis to pick up the dressers from a stranger’s storage.
The dressers had been in good kind within the occasion you uncared for the mould and the cracked drawers. In case you squinted, the {{hardware}} lined up evenly. In case you didn’t care a few desilvering mirror, you can presumably even give your self a wink and nod and make out your reflection winking once more. We didn’t should persuade ourselves though; we appreciated the dressers immediately. And by some miracle, they matched the headboard we’d rescued from my dad and mother’ attic.
I drove straight to the native Residence Depot to go looking out paint and replacements for the horrible dresser pulls any individual had caught on throughout the 80’s. I bought among the best, most cost-effective drawer pulls I’d uncover and fitted them into holes that had been drilled too big and too crooked by who’s conscious of who, who’s conscious of when. Inside, the place the drawers had been paint stained and cracked in places, I swiftly put down sheets of the least ugly Contact paper I’d uncover. It was decrease too temporary and it wrinkled as soon as I put it down. I didn’t bother making an attempt to scrub it out.
Sooner than Faye was born, I painted the dressers as soon as extra—a dramatic change I’d been hankering for—nonetheless my completely different slapdash enhancements remained until quite a lot of weeks up to now.
In the back of Barb’s e-booka tutorial for lining dresser drawers with wallpaper caught my eye. And whereas I wasn’t ready for one thing so dramatic as a result of the kind of work that Barb focuses on, I immediately thought-about the crinkled contact paper throughout the bottoms of my dresser drawers. Maybe it was lastly time to let it go.
After debating a few acceptable pattern on which to place my clear lingerie and folded t-shirts, I decided on a refined lattice print paper from Farrow & Ball for the drawers. I measured and decrease the wallpaper using Barb’s technique of chopping the sheet to the width of the pores and skin edge of each drawer. I borrowed my mom’s copper ruler with a sq. edge and did my best to be affected particular person and decrease straight strains with my utility knife. Largely I was worthwhile. At any charge, the advance from wrinkled Contact paper was spectacular.
And it’s true what Barb says: particulars matter. 
Whereas I was at it, I decided to finish the drawers by lastly altering the {{hardware}}. I chosen drawer handles and pulls from Schoolhouse Electrical that complement the classic dressers with out having to be classic themselves. They’re smaller and simpler than the {{hardware}} I’d found as soon as we first bought the dressers and I like that the pared-down aesthetic lends considerably modern edge to the additional folksy furnishings.
I notably love that the model new {{hardware}} has the similar clear strains as a result of the mattress physique that we bought as soon as we upgraded to a queen mattress closing month (additional on that in closing week’s publish).
The finished enterprise isn’t so dramatic to be life-altering, nonetheless it’s the exact change that’s made the dressers actually really feel far more like us. Gradual and common wins as soon as extra.
What about you guys? Little enhancements with big impacts in your areas as of late? Spring cleaning?
Disclosure: As soon as I launched into this enterprise quite a lot of weeks up to now, I reached out to Farrow & Ball about their eco-friendly wallpapers. They generously despatched a roll of their painted lattice wallpaper for me to utilize. The modern {{hardware}} for this enterprise had been supplied by Schoolhouse Electrical. I used Greenwood Pulls and Riverwood Knobs in matte bronze. The {{hardware}} is made throughout the US from 95% recycled brass. (The outdated {{hardware}}’s life continues on at my mom and pop’s. One girl’s trash…)