Saturday, July 31, 2010

Bedroom Project

I haven't had a dresser in my bedroom since I moved into this house.  The room's too small, and a dresser would block access to the poorly located  the closets and doors.  Some day, I plan to build a master suite in the basement, but until then (likely ten years), I set out to find a solution.

I wanted to buy second hand or antique pieces to be painted, but this city isn't big enough to have a very good selection.  When that idea failed, I decided that there was no reason why I couldn't paint something new, if it wasn't too expensive to start off.

The first piece came from a scratch, dent and butt ugly sale.  I posted about it in January, when you helped me to decide not to do any special paint effects.  (Thank you for that.  It was a good call.)  Then, after looking for a piece to match it for a few months, I finally settled on an Ikea piece.  The colour was wrong, and I hated the knobs; but I liked its lines.  I bought it in March and worked on it slowly as I found time.  Over the  spring, I primed it, painted it with six coats and changed the knobs .  Finally, it's done.

This is what it started as:


This is what it looks like now:

... and the two together.


I knew the dresser would be taller than the average bedside table, but I thought it'd be OK since it would be doing double duty as storage for my clothes.  Turns out, I think it might be too big.  It feels quite a bit taller than I expected.  I can barely reach the knob to turn the bedside light off, and it blocks part of the closet door.  I'm going to live with it for a while, and see how it works.  If it doesn't work there, I've got other places in the house where it can go.  I'll just have to go back to the drawing board and find another solution for the bedroom.

5 comments:

  1. I have a feeling the door blockage is going to be a pain in the butt and that you may end up moving it; excellent job on the refinishing though!

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  2. I really like this. It's amazing what you've been able to do!! I am so not that creative.

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  3. Ikea should hire you! What if you interchanged the two pieces?

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  4. Maybe take some length out of the legs and what Sandra said can you put the dresser where the round table is? Love the finish.

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  5. Thanks, ladies.

    I've thought of shortening the legs, but the depth would still be a problem. I'm annoyed at myself for doing all that work without considering how it would block the closet door.

    As for swapping the two, I can't do that because the door to the ensuite bathroom is opposite the closet door and would be blocked.

    The more I think about this, the more I think that I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board.

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