drumroll please!

I had planned for my big reveal to be when the project was actually complete, but I've had a bit of a setback. A big part of the project involves an order from Anthropologie that was supposed to arrive by the weekend, just in time for me to reveal the finished product on Saturday or Sunday like I'd planned. But I talked to them this morning and they said for some reason it isn't shipping until tomorrow and won't be here until next Wednesday or Friday. So sad!!!

So rather than keep the suspense going for a week and a half, which would probably be very anti-climactic, I'm just going to blog about it as I go.

The Purchase:

This is a HUGE dresser that we bought from a guy on Craigslist. He was moving and needed to get rid of it fast, and we were all too happy to accommodate him! We picked it up for only $30 and hauled it home:) Pretty ugly, right? I had to remind myself to look past the terrible greenish brown stain on the wood and just focus on the little details I loved about it. This is the picture from the actual ad. He wasn't trying very hard to make it look it's best, was he?

The dresser is pretty old so the hardware was SUCH a pain to get off. One of the knobs required hauling out the toolbox and using a pair of pliers and three different screwdrivers to get it off. I'm almost glad that we won't be able to paint it for a week because it's so heavy and dragging it out onto the porch again for painting isn't something to look forward to.

The Plan:

This is the hardware I plan to use. The middle two drawers will have the round white knob pictured above. Fortunately I already have four of these lying around at the house, so I'm all set to go with those!

This is the part I'm the most excited about, and unfortunately, the part that's holding me back from being able to finish it since apparently they haven't been shipped yet. Two of the clues in my little post were our old entertainment center (because it's being replaced with this dresser) and library books. The library books clue was because on the four outside drawers I'm going to be replacing the hardware with these adorable library card catalog knobs! I'm going to alphabetize our DVD collection into the drawers and then label the drawers accordingly (A-D, E-J, etc.) using these little guys.



And of course the white rice was just a clever way of saying "white", because I am painting it white. We still have to go out and buy wood putty or whatever it's called to close up the old hardware holes. The old handles are 5 inches apart and the new ones are three inches apart, so it's not going to be as simple to replace the outside drawers as it will the inside two. Once the new hardware arrives we'll have to drill new holes for those (and by "we" I mean my husband), so for now all I can do is prime it. But it's already a huge improvement just with some plain ole primer, right?


Before I go, let's get another look at the before and during:)



And keep in mind, that's just plain primer. It will look much better with actual paint:) Also, don't forget you can click on the pictures for a much closer look!