Dresser Restoration

When I first moved to San Francisco I was newly engaged, transitioning from living on my own to living with my husband-to-be and really feeling the need to graduate from my hand me down piece-meal single days apartment to a real adult home. That can be hard to do when the only decent piece of furniture you own is a couch. Have you seen the price of furniture lately, yeow!!!

It became clear pretty much instantly that a dresser in our bedroom was a necessary first step because storage space was a real issue in our apartment. Armed with my passion for interior design and the challenge of finding a good deal I set out to find something I could make my own and feel good about. Below is the process (still ongoing) I went through to add a touch of lovely to the bedroom and functional storage to the space.

Thanks to my friend Katie of My DIY Habits I had a great vision for the style I was going for after seeing her side table hack (HERE) and the inspiration piece she used (HERE). I wanted something with clean lines I could add interesting hardware to and end with something unique and eye catching. After weeks of scouring Craigslist I got suuuuper lucky and scored a piece for $50. Hey, when people are motivated the price will be right!

The dresser fit perfectly in the space, lucky me!

$50 later and lots of work to go!

As you can see I started with a pretty sad looking piece. The lines I wanted were there but I needed to put in some real elbow grease to make this dresser the stunner I knew it could be. After months of procrastination and trying to figure out how the heck I was going to sand/paint in my apartment I got to work on a weekend the hubs was out of town. Messes were made. Many calls to my expert home improvement specialist dad were dialed. And a few swear words may have been muttered aloud. But in the end it was worth it to get a piece with a new outlook on life.

Not an advocate for selfies but the hubs didn’t actually believe I was doing it…proof!

Assembly line in action

Now, I present to you….the not quite finished product, hahaha, no seriously, I’m still not done. Why? Well, I ran out of time and didn’t get to the legs of the dresser. So there’s that (ok, promise I will attempt it this weekend). But more importantly I couldn’t find the hardware of my dreams due to the double holes (yeah, four in total on each drawer) I have to try and cover in choosing my handles. I guess that’s what you can expect when you spend $50 on your dresser. To get the piece to a functional state I bought the $1.50 pulls from Home Depot but am still on the hunt for more interesting handles that will work. I have lots of inspirational vibes going on my Pinterest board (check it out HERE) so I’m refocusing on finding something and finishing this little project up for good. I promise to post more pics when it is finally complete but for now enjoy, and maybe even find a little motivation for yourself to create something unique for your home.

Still working on the best decor for the top but the basics – a tray (obviously), picture of my grandparents on their wedding day, and candlesticks – are there to stay. Also, the blue is more grey and less royal in real life.