The Shabby Chic Dresser~A Before & After Story

The story of the Shabby Chic Dresser and.....

the Eleventh Hour!

It's good to be here in my office, talking to you all again! It's been about 3 weeks that I have been away from my office and my paint shop (aka my messy garage), but.....I'm baaaack! Let me tell you a little bit of what we have been up to the last few weeks that has kept me away.

First of all, our school let out for the summer on the 20th. May is always a whirlwind of activity for us with recitals, awards assemblies, concerts, graduations and end of the school year parties. We also had a UDA dance camp, a driver's permit test to study for and pass, move my son home and out of his apartment and then pack him up to leave again. Needless, to say, May passed me by in a blur! I'm sure your May looked a lot like mine, especially f you have school aged children.

As you all may know, I have a 15 year old and a 20 year old. My son is the 20 year old, who just finished his Sophomore year in college. He goes to a university that is about 20 minutes from home so it has been nice to be able to zip there to see him and have him come home often. A few months ago, he was offered a wonderful research opportunity in the Biomedical Engineering department in South Carolina for the summer. His first day there was June 1st so we drove him there in a caravan with my husband and son in one car and my daughter and I in the other. It's about a 13-14 hour drive for us one way. It was a fun experience but one that pulled at my heartstrings when I had to leave him there. Needless to say, it took some time to help him pack and get ready for his summer stay.

That leads me to this week! This week my hubby's birthday was Monday and then he left for a business trip Wednesday morning. I. meanwhile. was prepping and painting to re-stock our booth at Daisies & Olives in Prairie Grove. This weekend's event in Prairie Grove is "The Junk Ranch". Years ago, I had a 10x10 tent in "The Junk Ranch", the very first year it started. That was some good times, although a lot of work. Daisies & Olives Antique Mall, where we have a booth, co-promotes "The Junk Ranch". Along with the Junk Ranch, it is considered quite a busy weekend with D&O featuring give aways, fun foods and outside vendors for the weekend event. My booth wasn't exactly empty but it wasn't full either so I busted buns to get this Shabby Chic Dresser done and some other small items for sale, which I will show you later.

I couldn't wait to get started on this dresser! I knew when I bought it that I would paint it all white and replace the outdated hardware. Here is what it looked like when I purchased it at a local second hand furniture mart:

This piece is solid wood, which is normally what I look for when buying used furniture to refurbish. It did have some ornate brass hardware that I wasn't crazy about for this piece, and it really dated the furniture. We wanted to replace it with something more current.

Sometimes the hardware on a piece of furniture will have two kinds of hardware or the same kind of hardware but different sizes. I'm telling you this because even though I know this, I didn't really pay attention to that little tidbit until the eleventh hour and I was supposed to be loading up in an hour to head to my booth. I had purchased 12 pieces of a silver handle hardware at Target all the same size. But when I got to the second drawers, my hardware didn't fit! BUMMER!!!! (Okay, that's not what I said, but you don't need to know that) Anyway, sweaty and yucky after trying to hurry and get this sanded and waxed that morning, I rushed to Home Depot to see if I could match the 2 1/2 inch silver handle hardware with a 3" silver handle hardware. I was praying at this point! Oh man, I really didn't want to have to figure out something else. And guess what? I found one the exact sheen of silver. The handle was a little different but I figured since it was bigger anyway, that it would work. I love how it turned out!

I managed to get it all done and over to the booth in record time, even hitting a bit of late rush hour traffic on the way. In the meantime, of my frantic rush off to get hardware, I called my daughter and asked her to please stage the top of the dresser with some items to take pictures. As soon as I got the hardware attached, I would need to take pictures for the blog! I love how well she did with this assignment! Here is a closer look at her skills! :)

She is always a huge help to me when I take her to the booth to help me rearrange and stock. She has an artist's eye and I will be putting her to work this summer for sure! :)

Since my hubby was out of town and this solid wood dresser was extremely heavy for Emily and I, my sweet, wonderful neighbor's came over to help us load it in the back of the SUV. I big shoutout and heartfelt thank you goes to Joy and Alex for helping us! You guys are the BEST!

Once we got to D & O, we needed some help unloading too and there are always wonderful people there who are always willing to lend a hand. This time it happened to be our friends from "Four Funky Friends" who helped us. Thank you ladies for helping Emily and I out yesterday!!!! They are four friends who have a wonderful booth back in the new addition of D & O, near my booth.

These ladies are an inspiration and with great style who are always so kind and encouraging. I'm a lucky girl to be a vendor at Daisies and Olives with all the wonderful vendors and people there. You can check out "Four Funky Friends" Facebook page here and if you haven't already, "Daisies & Olives Antique Mall page here to find all the vendors. Here is a look at the Shabby Chic Dresser in our booth and one of the booth all stocked and ready.

At the end of the day, I'm happy and satisfied with my crazy busy life and schedule! But I am mostly humbled and thankful for you and all the people who are so kind and helpful; friends and family who support what I do and are following along with me on this journey! Thank you!

Next week, I will be sharing some more projects and some exciting news! Today, is my birthday so I'm going to go spend the rest of it with my girl, Emily!

Until next week......I leave you with this Irish blessing!

"May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you, and all your heart might desire"