It only took you how long?

When we were in Texas, I bought a dresser at Goodwill instead of getting a big fancy entertainment center. We move around a lot, so we like to keep our furniture as light (and inexpensive) as possible. I needed something that would be easy to move up and down stairs. Plus, I didn't really want to worry that the air force contracted movers would damage it

My Mom had come to visit us and she helped me pick it out, stuff it in the van, and laughed with me all the way to the apartment (it was hilarious. I had to use rope to tie the back doors together because the dresser was too big. I didn't know my way around town very well because we had just moved there, and I had to make several quick, awkward turns... awesome) She also helped me get the thing upstairs and put it in place. Since then we have moved. And while we are still upstairs, the dresser is being viewed in a much different light.

I thought it was the coolest thing in the world... until I saw it's full glory in direct sunlight. WOW. How on earth did it manage to hide all of the ugly? How did I not notice there there were holes from previous hardware? Holy cow, this thing needs a makeover right this moment.





For a larger image, click here.

And that is exactly what I spent most of yesterday doing. I had to remove a lot of (what appeared to be) glue from the front so that I could sand it. Normally I would have attempted this with a razor blade, or a putty knife... but I didn't have either. I chose scissors! Excellent if you want to gouge a ravine into your High Class Wood-like Entertainment Station, not so great if you need to dig in and crack off gobs of industrial strength, government issued bonding cement.

I wasn't smart enough to take pictures of the really bad spots, but you can see a little bit of it here. It looks kind of like drops of wax. Those were the small ones that were pretty easy to remove. ... I wish so bad that you could see the other ones.





After fully sanding and prepping the doors, I was finally able to start painting. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken during this time as I did not want to document the insanity. Rather than fully showing and explaining the process, I'll just tell you a little story about the day.

My Husband had just finished his lunch of Bratwurst with a side of beans, and was getting ready for work. He decided that he would take my car since his has been having a bit of trouble, and I didn't really have any plans so I told him it was fine. He kissed me goodbye and walked out the door. I stepped out onto the balcony to have a cigarette and wave to him as he left.

The second he was out of sight, I ran back inside and emptied the dresser. I knew it would take a while for the paint to dry, so I wanted to get started as soon as possible. This was going to be a surprise for him since he always tells me how much he hates the dresser.

First, I pulled off the doors and started sanding, and once I had two coats of paint on them, I started on the drawers. Thinking I would be done within a few hours, I just dumped everything in the middle of the living room floor.

I pulled the knobs off the drawers and started sanding. Once they were sanded, I put another coat of paint on the doors and then realized... the dust from sanding was going to start sticking to the fresh paint.

Everything on our small balcony was moved to a new spot to maximize the distance from paint to dust.

Then I painted the drawers.

After a few coats, I realized I was going to have enough time to do the whole dresser and immediately began ripping out cables and finding temporary homes for the electronics. Once I had the dresser unloaded, I started to drag it outside. It was a lot bigger than I remember it being, so it took a little while to do it by myself and I kept being reminded of old I Love Lucy episodes.

After sanding the rest of the dresser and starting on a coat of paint, The Roommate came home. He had a rough day at work and we talked for a moment before he decided to go to his room. After a little bit I somehow ended up standing with one foot on a chair and the other on the edge of the balcony railing. I very nearly fell.

At that point, I decided to ask The Roommate if he could supervise me, lest I pass out or fall to my death. ( I really have no idea what I was doing.)

He came to sit with me for a little bit and made a comment about this not being a lot of work. I very nearly slapped him with my paintbrush.

At some point, he decided to go to his bedroom (I think I may have accidentally yelled at him from our bedroom. I knocked a cup over and screamed.) and I was left to supervise myself.

I decided to add some detail work to the doors so that the entire thing would not be black. During this process O (one of our neighbors) showed up to keep me company. We sat and chatted for a bit while we were waiting for everything to dry and while I was finishing the doors.

My Husband pulled up, hopped out of the car and asked if dinner was ready. At this point, I have been working on the dresser and doing other house things for nearly 10 hours. I was covered in sweat, paint, dirt, and dust. My hair was a wreck, and he was home about an hour early. No, dinner was not ready. He let us know that he had a horrible day, and asked what we wanted from Burger King. I picked something that I knew would take a little longer and as soon as he was gone, O and I jumped up to put the dresser back.

We got the dresser moved, drawers in and filled, and put the doors back on. Then I realized that we were missing a knob. I frantically searched for it and discovered that it had not been painted. Since I mixed the color myself, I had to dive in the sink to grab the paint dish before it got washed. I painted the knob and put it back on the dresser while it was still a bit wet.

The second O and I stood back up, My Husband walked through the door. It took him a minute to notice the change, but he said that it looked much better.



Though we got most of the stuff back in place, I didn't have time to hook everything back up. So, instead of watching a movie, we just hung out with the neighbors for a while before we went to bed.

I kept moving things around the living room to make everything look a little better and I am so happy with the results!