Leaf Me Alone, I Want To Play Dress Up!

An Update for a Very Old Dresser

You may know that over the past several years we put an addition on our home. Ourselves. Well, with a LOT of help from family and friends. Any renovation is challenging, to say the least. By the time you get to 'dressing' the new rooms, you've changed your minds about color a thousand times, many arguments have ensued ("we said we were going to put the door THERE, not THERE"), and the budget has dwindled to next to nothing.  What you find is, "Next to Nothing" can be quite inspiring.

Gar had been making use of a hand-me-down dresser from my parents since we were married. Before it became his, it was part of their 1962ish blonde bedroom set. Yes, you know the ones.  They had done a blue pickling technique after living with the 'blonde' into the 70s.  When it came to us, we painted it a deep red- almost burgundy. And it lived happily that way until the 'new master bedroom' was in need of something new to go along with the rest of it. But, alas, no budget.

We had incorporated things with leaves into our bedroom, like our bedside lights and our curtains.


Our leafy bedroom curtains.

 So why not the dresser?  I scoured the basement for paint and found some light blue-ish gray that was leftover from our bathroom. Love the color but it needed something else. Oh yeah, leaves.



I painted this puppy the light blue-ish gray I found in the basement. 
Sorry I don't have step by step pictures, I did this two years ago.  This picture really
doesn't do this dresser justice.

 I also found some white paint, went outside to find the perfect leaves, and painted the leaves and pressed them on the newly painted dresser. LOVE it!



The best was when the veining in the leaves really showed through.





As you can see by the burgundy showing through on the bottom of the dresser,
it might be time for a touch up.



The old, dark brass handles needed a lift too. Used chrome spray paint on them after cleaning them up, roughing them up and priming.



Here's another view. The leaves are sprinkled across the top of the dresser too.



This was a really easy technique. What took the most time was the drying time of the base coat of paint. This would be really cute for a bedside table, or whatever piece of furniture you want to spruce up. Of course, spruce have needles and not leaves so I probably could have chosen a better word!

Paint On my lovelies.


The Real Deal

Just wanted to confess. I did not Shark vac yesterday and it shows.  Furball alert! Nobody is perfect and neither is our home. But that's probably what makes it a home.
Full disclosure- you're not the only one who has tumbleweeds rolling across the floor. We do too.



Furball City under our dining table.

Welcome to the Real World.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.