Between buying a house, moving expenses, and doctor’s visits during pregnancy, budgeting is of the most importance right now. We moved from a 700 sqft. apartment to an 1800 sqft house, so to say it was a bit empty is an understatement. We aren’t willing to break the bank and go even deeper into debt filling a house with furniture if it isn’t a necessity.
However, we know everything for the baby needs to come first. He will be here in a little over a month, or sooner, and we’ve needed to put any and all extra money into getting the things we need. I was looking for a dresser changing table combination to make organization easier. I found a new one I liked for over $200. I decided to peruse Nextdoor for furniture. I posted an ISO post and listed everything I was looking for. My neighbors certainly delivered. Between cheap dining sets and couches we found quite a bit of items. One of which was a dresser and changing table combo that looked in great condition. It was $50 and a cherry wood color. I wasn’t a fan of the color so I knew I’d want to update it a bit.
My poor husband and father-in-law picked this up for me and apparently it is unbelievably heavy. It’s not our typical Ikea furniture where you can lift it by yourself. Now, I know, some of you all will be mad because it is a lovely dresser, but it isn’t my style. It did have lacquer on it so I knew it would be a challenge. The other fun part was that the drawers wouldn’t come out. We tried everything. So, I had a bonus challenge of painting drawers while still part of the dresser. I was at least able to get the fixtures off so I didn’t have to worry about that.
I did my research and found that Zinsser makes a primer that will stick to surfaces without sanding. So I bought a can and started priming.
Once I finished the nightmare of priming around drawers. I let it dry overnight. You only need to let it dry 2 hours, but I’m pregnant, it was hot and after priming I was exhausted.
I bought a sample of HGTV paint at Lowe’s in Naval. I ended up having to go back and get a second sample to be able to finish. I did 2 coats to make sure that everything was covered.
This dried for about 24 hours as well and then I did a Polycrylic seal. I knew that it was going to have spills and everything else happen to it since it is a changing table so I wanted to protect the paint. I let this cure for about 48 hours before replacing the hardware.
The original plan was to put new knobs on the doors. I had found some space themed pulls I was really excited about. However, they didn’t really fit and I couldn’t find the right screws to make them work. So, I kept the original pulls.
Once everything was together the wonderful men in my life once again had to move this from the garage to upstairs for me. It was terrifying to witness, but they did it! Overall the project cost me about $80 including the dresser which I feel is pretty good since I was going to drop $200 on a changing table dresser that wasn’t nearly as good of quality.
This was my first piece in a long time. Doing it while 7.5 months pregnant was exhausting, but I love every second of it. I had forgotten how much I love working on these types of projects and can’t wait to find some more!
Flourishing Boldly 