Elephant Ear Dresser

More and more of my conversations with people are starting with: 

"I have this really old (blank). 

It doesn't look that great at all, 

but I really think you could do something great with it."

Here's the latest (blank):

I'm calling it the "Elephant Ear Dresser" because from the moment my friend told me about it, I just felt like it needed to be grey and pink, and go in a little girl's room. I have this ribbon with grey elephants on it, and I guess it was in the back of my mind as inspiration for my next piece. I've never looked inside and elephant's ear, but I imagine it being pink. (Don't correct me if I'm wrong… let me believe the lie.)

I have a feeling this piece was originally green, then maybe someone wanted it pink? Thick pink? I'm a little confused on that piece of the painting puzzle.

I was lucky because a lot of the prep work had been done for me, because someone started scraping all the paint off. All I had to do was sand it smooth.

It got a full coat of a coral/pepto bismol/bubble gum pink first, then I covered it all in grey. 

(See Godiva in her usual "helping" position? It looks like we were BBQ-ing that night.)

I knew I wanted it to be owl grey. But I went into my stash of paint and it was nowhere to be found! I was so set to get this baby done, the sun was setting, and I needed my owl grey! I just ended up making my own. I added some "oops" beige to a dark grey I had on hand. Who knows if they were satin, flat, gloss… but it came out perfect. 

I also knew I wanted some peek-a-boo pink on the sides of the drawers. The drawers were in pretty good shape inside, but I always like to line my drawers with fabric. 

I chose this yellow/pink/grey fabric for the drawers.

I also put the same fabric on the back, just to give it some "peek-a-boo" fun. The back of the dresser was also the only part of the piece that wasn't real wood. It needed some prettification. 

So with it painted, I distressed it so the pink would show through, and then used Miss Mustard Seed's Antiquing Wax over the whole thing. 

If you know me, you know I fall in love with the imperfections in the wood.

As much as I wanted to go all trendy with the knobs, I went economical (knobs are expensive!) and I actually think the brushed nickel is way cuter and streamlines the piece. Anything else would have been too busy. 

It sold, via Instagram, within 6 hours of posting it. That's a record!! It was actually spoken for by 2 different people within the first hour, but ended up in one of their hands within 6 hours. Better yet, if I could have made a custom dresser for the little girl who's room it ended up in, I would have made this exact dresser! She's one of my dance students. 

Aloha, Rebecca