The Fantastic Mr. & Mrs. Fox: DIY!

When we planned our trip to the Outer Banks, Glenn thought that week was his spring break, it was actually the week after. Lucky mistake, because that meant I got two whole weeks with my husband! Those were by far the easiest and fastest weeks and really helped the countdown to baby! We are addicted to HGTV and DIY network home makeover shows and have been inspired to get our DIY on for quite some time. Now that we finally had the time we spent the week refinishing not one, but two dressers.

Me and the DIY process had a love/hate relationship with each other. I admit that I have expensive taste. I like shopping in actual stores and buying shiny, new, and clean things. I have difficulty looking at Craigslist and people wanting me to pay anything at all for their damaged, disgusting, dirty, old crap. We’re broke though, and I need to suck up my snobby tendencies at times. I wasn’t sure I was a believer in the DIY process either. Sure I like watching professionals work their magic on TV, I read tons of how-to tutorials on Pinterest, my husband builds professional sets for a living, but this was my first time and I doubted. We bought a dresser on Craigslist for $30. It has a charming curvy shape that we loved, but looked like someone threw it out the window, kicked it around for fun, and left it out in the rain. We bought another dresser at The Salvation Army for $40 that had lots of nice detailing, but was so dirty I wasn’t sure I could put my germaphobia aside and actually put my clothes inside. Are these dressers beyond repair?

In the end – it was all love for the DIY! We were so eager to start that we were at the school first thing in the morning to get started. I thought it was pretty ironic that Glenn spent his spring break working in his scene shop every single day just like any other work day. Glenn got to work repairing the ‘hippie dresser’, it really does have these huge wide lady hips, filling in all the cracks, and literally building an entire new corner out of plaster for one of the dressers. I sanded and sanded the blah brown dirty dresser for hours! It was a Zen-calming experience for me. With every circular motion I literally felt the ugly washing away and already saw vast improvement. I felt better as I ripped off the entire backside and underside that was covered in some oily substance and Glenn replaced it with new clean ones. I loved picking out paint colors and new hardware at Lowes. Best part – we 100% agreed on everything. With every little step I could see these dressers transforming and I was excited to go back each day and make more progress. A couple days in, In the middle of painting the insides of the nasty particle board drawers to disguise the ugly I started to waver in my enthusiasm. I was just having an emotional day, had stared at the same thing for too long, and was sore from sitting in the same position too long. I was anxious to get to the fun part, painting the outsides. Once we got the first coats of paint on the dressers I was much happier! Rose dust for baby girl, and Monterey Bay Teal for us, or just pink and blue. My favorite part was when we did the distressing on the dresser for us. I am hooked on the look of a distressed finish, and the dresser really started to look like an expensive piece of furniture at this point. The final touch on baby girl’s dresser – glitter! We bought paint crystals that you mix in with a clear glaze and didn’t skimp on the amount of glitter. I love pink and sparkly, and was so giddy as we painted this on. I love that we’re having a little girl because I need an outlet for all the pink and sparkly that I love. The last and final step was just putting on hardware and placing the drawers back in, simple, easy, task. We go to put the drawers back in and they don’t fit. Not happy as I watched Glenn sand down the sides of our lovingly painted drawers. It was fixed, the drawers now fit, and we can’t stop smiling at the final outcome. The teal and cream combo with distressed finish and perfectly accented hardware give our dresser a Bohemian vibe that I’m in love with. And baby girl’s dresser is whimsical and fun, and looks straight out of a Disney movie.

I was won over by the DIY process. I loved having a project to work on with my husband. I loved getting something I love for less money. For $143 we got two dressers that we are so pleased with. I loved getting a little down and dirty every day. I loved that our visions came to life and it was all because of our hard work, and yeah we’re a little proud! I even have ideas circling around in my mind about starting a dresser flipping venture!