changing table dresser.

with only a couple of weeks left until baby, the essential parts of the nursery are finally starting to come together--meaning there's at least a place for sleeping and a place for changing diapers and storing all of those ridiculously tiny clothes.

one thing i wanted to do in the nursery was use a thrifted dresser as a changing table. so jon and i kept our eyes out for the perfect one. and lo and behold we stumbled across this midcentury beauty for just thirty five dollars.

ok, so maybe she wasn't much of a beauty on the surface, but she definitely had nice bones (yes, the dresser is clearly a girl). she just needed a little bit of love. and a lot work.

the drawer fronts are a thick wood veneer, so they got sanded and stained, along with the solid wood legs (seven months pregnant libby sanding on the front porch in july was probably a hilarious show for the neighbors. luckily, there are no pictures). the top was laminate, so i decided just to paint the entire body of the dresser. some liquid deglosser, two coats of oil based primer and three coats of latex paint later...this looker emerged.

isn't she lovely? the whole thing got finished off with several coats of polyacrylic in a semi-gloss finish. hopefully, it will be pretty durable and able to hold up to the many wipings-down it is likely to see, given it's primary purpose is to serve as diaper changing central.

and just for fun, the insides of the drawers got a fun pop of color, thanks to some gift wrap from target. i just cut it to size and modge-podged it down. i don't know how it will hold up, but for the four dollars i spent in gift wrap, it wasn't a big commitment.

conan approves.

and don't worry, we did get one of those diaper changing pad things to live on top of it. it didn't make it into these photos though, as it's not currently very photogenic.