A Labor of Love

For the past two weekends, my mom, Dave, and I have been working hard on the furniture for Little Bee's room... A labor of love if you will.

Now it's finish and was completely worth the effort... We had our doubts at times as to what the finished products would look like and if it would be worth all of our hard work, but every time I walk in the room I am reassured by my since of accomplishment and satisfaction with the final product.

We did three pieces; An old dresser that was my grandparents and is likely older than I am, an unfinished crib, and an unfinished rocking chair.

The dresser had to be stripped of it's old varnish and stain which was a relatively simple task that took a couple of hours over a couple of days... I almost finished stripping all of the drawers before I remembered to take a "before" picture of my project, but at least you get an idea of what the dresser looked like before.


After stripping it, sanding it, applying three coats of stain, three coats of varnish, and putting on new knobs, here is our finish product! You can't get a good sense of the knobs from this picture, but each drawer has a different set of ceramic knobs to add to the worldly theme of the nursery. My mom had originally pointed me to the Anthropologie website where I feel in love with knobs that were between $10 and $15 a piece. Spending $100-$150 on knobs isn't what I had in mind for this project. So, we looked to another source... Hobby Lobby! And, we were able to find comparable knobs for $3-$5 a piece!

We bought the crib and rocking chair at Unfinished Furniture Warehouse. I forgot to take pictures of them before they were finished, but just imagine plain, unfinished wood. Also, the rocking chair was in about 11 pieces... Here they are in their finished form.


Next project!...Hanging things on the walls... Also, we've ordered a crib mattress that should be in this week. To ensure I don't have too much time on my hands to think and worry about the next couple of months, I'm exploring fabric for curtains, bumper pads and a window seat cover.

I love having projects and it seems to be very effective in helping me get through this difficult time of waiting. If anyone has any additional project ideas, let me know!