Furniture Redo: Child’s Room to Entertainment Center

I shared the dresser/chest I found last week at the antique mall for $100, in its Before state. You’ve got to look past what something looks like to see potential. That’s always been my motto and it definitely works!
And now I’m proud to say, she doesn’t look like this anymore:

Much improved.   I’m still getting used to my new camera and trying to get good pics in low light, so bear with me on these.  It’s hard to capture the color of the walls in here, which is Sherwin Williams Blonde.  Some are too light and some too yellow, but the true color is in there somewhere.  🙂Doesn’t take up too much space either. Much better, don’t you think?  I added some beadboard wallpaper inside the door and did a paint overhaul with some soft blue paint I had on hand:  Rain by Sherwin Williams.  Adding some glaze for a vintage effect helped too, as well as adding new knobs.

Not so baby-ish anymore, huh?

This chest really was the perfect size and shape for what we needed:  adding a flat screen to the room.  It now sits directly across from the bed, instead of in the corner as before.   I don’t even mind that it isn’t hidden anymore.  The distressing is really subtle (even more so than this pic) and I used Ralph Lauren Smoke glaze to achieve an aged look.  I’ll show you more on all of that later. I patiently waited 2 weeks for the knobs at Hobby Lobby to go back on sale and it finally got here this week.  You can’t beat their knobs!  Very much Anthropologie-like, but much cheaper on sale.  These are navy polka-dots. The flat screen sits nicely on top and there are plenty of storage drawers and a big door too. Close-up of the knob and aging glaze. Inside the door, I built a little shelf to put the DVD.  Drilled a hole in the back for the cords with my skil saw.  This was made with simple furring strips (98 cents for 8′), cut with my miter box and I had a left over piece of real beadboard that I just plopped on top, after cutting it to size. Nothing fancy, but holds the DVD up top and out of the way. I moved my vanity over near the window and it fits there nicely too. Looking back at the antique armoire as you come in the room.  Our room is not huge, so this piece doesn’t take up a lot of space, thank goodness.  We have a lot of furniture in here, but it works out pretty cozy for us and everything functions well.  We only have this one single window in here, so I have a hard time getting great photos in this room. I would love a whole bank of windows, but that’s not what we got.

You may remember that my mom made those drapes for me right after we moved in.  I’m sorry to say they have faded quite a bit, as you can see in some of the pics.  They are made of silk and I just don’t think I’ll use silk again in a window that gets this much sun.  They are lined and inner-lined too, but it didn’t stop the sun from fading them and I didn’t get to it fast enough to spray the fabric with a UV protector.  So, I think I’ll use them for awhile longer and then I just might replace them with some ivory dropcloth drapes.  I can always add some blue to those to fancy them up a little.  I hate it, but that’s what sun can do to fabric, especially silk.

We also found out that by pulling the drapes shut most of the time, it keeps out a lot of the heat that can get in during the summer, so we do keep them pulled shut most of the time during the summer and winter (to keep the heat IN).  I opened it up to let some light in for these pics.

View of the bed and pillows.  I still enjoy the fabrics that I chose for our room.

The vanity fits in very well in the corner now.  I actually do put on my makeup here all the time. I decided to just keep the little bamboo table right here in between the vanity and the dresser.  It’s nice to hold books and it seems to anchor the painting over it, so I’m just gonna leave it here for the time being.  That plant is looking rather pathetic, time for a new one.

Here are a few in progress pics.  I’m not the best about documenting every single step while in the middle of a mess, but hopefully this will give you a good idea of how I did this one.

I did start off by sanding all over the piece with my electric sander.  I really should have gone ahead and primed the whole piece, but I was being lazy and tried to cut corners, but I discovered that after my 2 coats of finish paint, it was scraping off really easily on the front of the piece, so I sanded all of that down again and primed the whole front of it to make sure the paint would stick well.  It is usually better to prime, when you’re in doubt and I didn’t follow my own advice on this one.  The old paint was pretty shiny.  When you see shine on a piece, you just know it needs to be knocked down for that new paint to stick well, so either get out the electric sander OR prime.  Either or both will work so that you have good results at the end.

I simply cut to fit a piece of my beadboard wallpaper and glued it inside the inset door frame.  As neat as that is, there is still going to be a slight gap when you add this, so my solution is to add a small piece of molding on top of the wallpaper to really make it look more authentic.  To me, this just finishes it off.  For $4, one piece of molding will do the trick.   This piece is raised higher on one side than the other, so you have to cut it appropriately with the miter box.  Not hard, just pay attention.So, back to the molding.  I just cut it with my miter box and angled the corners.  Caulk and paint and you’re all set. I painted 2 coats of Rain on the whole thing, along with the drawer fronts.  Then I went back after it was all dry and used Ralph Lauren Smoke stain to give it an aged look. There are many ways you can go about aging something and I love to sand down too, but the way the old white paint was coming through, I didn’t want to risk my new paint coming off with the sander, so I just opted to do this method of distressing.  I simply paint on the glaze and then take a damp rag and wipe most of it away.

And you’ll end up with a subtle distressed look with the glaze.  I don’t think they are making RL glaze anymore.  It used to be a Home Depot.  But, this is really easy to duplicate.  All you have to do is buy small bottles of glaze and Raw Umber craft paint at the craft stores and mix your own.  It will do the very same thing, as will wood stain.  Lots of ways to distress, so pick your fave!

So, that’s my little update in the bedroom.  I’m so happy to have found a perfect sized piece for the flat screen and we do enjoy watching TV all snuggled up at night.

Are you looking for a special piece of furniture?

And are you thinking outside the box?