And I am so excited!!
Behold the lowly bureau (and yes, I know there’s a lot of mess around it! It was a rough day around here)….
This ugly, ugly piece of furniture has been my bureau for the past twenty years. It was a freebie I inherited when I came down to South Carolina to go to college.
Needless to say, my husband has hated it from day one.
He has desperately wanted to get rid of it and buy something new but I… no, I always said that someday I would paint it and use it for something. I wasn’t sure if the kids would inherit it, or it would remain ours, but I was insistent that someday, SOMEDAY, I was going to paint the darn thing.
That day finally arrived.
I present to you true love in action.
Here is a man sanding a piece of furniture he hates…
for reasons he doesn’t understand…
for a wife that he loves beyond all telling.
(and, may I add, it was in the high nineties and extremely humid that day)
After dh finished his part, the rest was up to me. I primed the bureau, painted it a cream color, and had each family member (including Marie!) do one of the stencils. Then, I mixed green paint and water (half and half), and did a wash over the whole thing. Several coats of polyurethane later, it was finally finished!
As always, it looks better in real life than I can capture with our camera, but I will tell you that it’s got that “rescued from a flea market/shabby chic” sort of look that I was going for. I still want to get glass knobs to replace the ugly brown ones, but for right now, it stays like this.
I can’t tell you how THRILLED I am that finally, twenty years later, this project is finished! Yahoo!
It looks great. I rescued two dressers for my daughters in much the same way. BTW, glass knobs would be perfect!
Oh, does he like it better now?
Oh that is just beautiful! We have several bits of ‘brown’ furniture that would benefit from this sort of treatment (and have been waiting years for it too). Very inspiring!
Matilda — he thinks it looks much, much better… but he still hates the way the drawers slide!
baleboosteh — I hope you get a chance to rescue yours as well… I feel like a HUGE weight has just been lifted from my shoulders!
What a loving husband!
Isn’t that the best feeling when you finish a project that you have wanted to complete, well, forever! It looks beautiful.
It’s so pretty! I love it! I’ve got a zillion projects like that planned…just can’t seem to get them done. I’ll give it another 20 years and maybe I’ll get to it!
Whoo-hoo! Beautiful! Love it!
BTW, I think you’re crazy for doing a project like that during your last month of pregnancy! LOL! Although…..could be that nesting urge.
Rock on, you nesting Mama!
Whooooo hooooo! It looks wonderful!
Great job to your dh!
Thanks, everyone!
Muddy Mama — he showed how much he loved me when he took that bureau out into the carport without a word of complaint and sanded it for me! He is truly a wonderful man…
Stevie — I hope you don’t wait as long as I did! That 20 yr old weight was getting awfully heavy on my shoulders!
Suzanne — I *KNOW* I’m completely insane to do something like that! I couldn’t even bend over to paint the legs without getting winded! It was so sad… I had to sit in a disgustingly dirty carport and paint quickly without worrying about the bugs.
Ladybug Mommy Maria — thank you! (it really, really does look better in “real life.” It’s green, and has the “streaks” in the paint that I wanted)
Ouiz, I love it, you did a beautiful job on it!!! BRAVO!
Wow, you did a terrific job! It turned out beautifully. Did your husband sand it by hand?? That’s a lot of work! The whole scene looks inviting and warm.
Use wax paper on the drawer tops to help them slide better. Sometimes that works…
I like everything about this photo…the wall color, the light, the clock, mirror and pictures. And of course, the dresser!
Thank you so much! I *still* am surprised by it every time I walk into my room!
I’ll try the wax paper trick and see if it works!