Saturday, May 31, 2014

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):

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobsI'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.)

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobsI 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.

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobsI 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.

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

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.)
grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobsI 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. 


grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobsI 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. 

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobsgrey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

I chose this yellow/pink/grey fabric for the drawers.
grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

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. 

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobsgrey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

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. 
grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

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

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobsAs 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. 

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

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. 

grey and pink girls wood dresser elephant ear brushed nickel knobs

Aloha, Rebecca

3 comments:

  1. That is a great transformation. Nice work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love the color choice, great tutorial too. I have a lot of oops paints and samples. Im going to try this method. Thanks

    ReplyDelete

Talk to me!