I had been looking for a medium size dresser with a cool shape for the bedroom. My husband doesn’t like to use a dresser, which lends to all of his things being tossed around the shelves in the closet. I didn’t want anything too large (seeing as apartment living doesn’t promise the space for any furniture, let alone large pieces), and I didn’t want to pay much more than $100 for a fixer upper.  I looked and I looked and I looked on craigslist and at thrift shops for the perfect old piece to redo.

It really did seem hopeless. I looked for months! I even considered painting an Ikea dresser when I was feeling desperate. Then, finally, there it was. An antique, solid wood short boy for $120; complete with mirror!

Before

The whole thing had quite a bit of cosmetic damage; all small stuff, like water rings and a couple little scratches. I tend to feel bad paining quality wood (this is walnut). So, I tried to sand it down to see how much of the varnish I could get off to re-finish it. It would have been a ton of work to sand it down completely by hand. So, I painted it.

I used the same paint I used for the three tables around the apartment. And, I used a similar process to paint them. I sanded them down a little bit all over. Then painted them and sealed them with the same fast drying polyurethane.

After

And then the mirror fell and broke so I bought this mirror.

And then I decided that I didn’t like the new mirror. So, I had the old mirror repaired.

I moved the gold mirror above my other dresser, but it might be too large. I’m thinking of moving it above my headboard. I don’t know though.

I still need to find some new knobs (I’m thinking gold) and attach the mirror to the back of the dresser (I need to talk to my dad about that). But, for the most part I’m super happy with the way this project has turned out.

So, tell me what you think!