These past few weeks have been grueling, but exciting.  I have been working on this nursery dresser for quite a while.  We have had some extremely low temperatures in our area and my drying times have been extended..even with extra heaters in my work space.  It was worth it and I hope you all think so too!

A very dear friend of mine (I will call her “C”) entrusted me to makeover her childhood dresser for her first nursery.  “C’s” personal style is very specific. It’s modern and vintage, but think “Eames” vintage.  After talking with her and looking through some design boards she put together, I drew four-five designs for her to choose from.  Drawing up different designs for her was really exciting for me.  I had boundaries, but the boundaries were unique enough to leave room for me to really experiment.  I hope to use some of the designs she didn’t go with in the future.  Here is the before picture…

This little darling had been painted quite a few times and needed to be fully stripped of all the old finishes. It took three different applications of stripper to get through everything.  See those curves on the bottom portion, I cut those off, because “C” prefers straight lines. You will be able to see that in the after photo’s.  “Josephine” is the perfect combination of classy, modern and vintage.  I think this furniture makeover will surpass the nursery stage of  baby “C” and carry him/her through the teen years at least.

The drawers aren’t lined with paper, but I did paint and seal the drawer sides with this fun pop of green.

The hardware is awesome and “C” picked them out, before I did the designs.  They are solid brass  pulls in the “Art Deco” style.  They really complete the design.  If “C” had picked round pulls or rectangular pulls,  I don’t believe this design would have happened.  A little advice, if you feel inspired to do vertical stripes after this post:  Take your time, and measure, measure, measure.  If you have the choice, go with a piece that has inset drawers.  Trust me!  The vintage books, red hippo (I absolutely adore it, love it, covet it) , and bow were provided by “C.”  The modern “You are my sunshine” print is from The Motivated Type.  Hanging light is from Ikea, and the wood vase’s are from West Elm.  I’m also redoing a child size table and chairs for “C” and I hope to have the before and after pictures up this friday.

Meg