Dresser Makeover and a Surprise TV Gallery Wall

Oh, this dresser. What a week it’s been with this bad boy. First, you might remember this pic from Facebook, but those of you who aren’t ND FB followers (that was a lotta letters!), here’s what I started with….

Please excuse the photos in this post. The first couple were taken with my camera phone (sheer laziness on my part – had that one with me, so I snapped a quick pic instead of going downstairs to get the good camera;). Then the ‘After’ shots were taken on this gloomy rainy day in Maryland, and with my lack of photography skills, I can never seem to get decent shots when the natural light is poor;) One of these days…

ANYwho…

Our master bedroom’s new light and bright look wasn’t vibin’ with the big bad dark espresso dresser/mirror combo. I knew I was going to make this my statement piece and give it a bright blue makeover. What I didn’t know, was what exactly would happen with the mirror. I knew it wasn’t going to match the blue. I assumed white, and went with that once the dresser was done.

Then I hated it.

Maybe some distressing would help?

Nope.

Then I got the idea to try sanding the heck out of it, erasing all my hard work by removing the white paint with my sander. thought maybe a cool rustic frame over the fun blue dresser might be a cool mix. Tried one small area to get the jist.

Nope. Again.

Huh.

I stared. And stared. And had an epiphany! I never – and I mean ever – use that mirror. It’s strictly there for looks, and well, because we bought it with the dresser (both from Haverty’s, for curious minds). I threw the idea to my husband to see if he objected to the mirror hittin’ the road. He was cool with it.

Here’s where it gets even better. The thorn in my side for the loooongest time has been his tall dresser, which is directly to the left of mine. Well, the thorn hasn’t been the actual dresser, but the tv on top of it. Between the two dressers, the huge mirror, and big tv, it’s a WHOLE lot of rectangles goin’ on in one corner. I’ve always hated it. Plus, where our bed is, we have to angle the tv to watch it. It’s a show.

See what I mean? Hot. Mess.

Enter my brilliant idea (if I do say so myself). Get rid of the useless mirror, place the tv on MY dresser and build a gallery wall around it! AND our bed is directly in front of my dresser, so no more angling. Are you with me? I was pretty proud of that one, I must say;)

And here it is…{drum roll, please}

Yay! So the top of the dresser needs a little bit of work (I’m determined to figure out a cute way to hide the cable box, and place something very low in front of the tv, maybe one of those awesome big branches with tea lights built in or something), so it’s sort of a work in progress, but I think it’s a big improvement. For the dresser, I used 2 samples of Glidden Deepest Aqua (from Home Depot) mixed with a couple spoonfuls of Plaster of Paris so it would go on without sanding and priming. One step painting, gotta love that! Well, technically two I suppose, if you count the waxing step I did with Minwax (Natural finish) to protect it from scratching. I also removed the knobs and gave them a coat of silver spray paint, just to brighten them up a little.

Then I shopped my house and grabbed things I thought would make a nice eclectic mix for the wall around the tv. I mixed some of my favorite pictures with a couple old mirrors for a different shape, our framed wedding invitation, an old sign that got a makeover with our word ‘always’ (it’s engraved in our wedding bands – post to come soon on that). Basically took things from around the house that I thought would all mesh together for one big beautiful medley of things that represent us.

Would love to show you the whole corner, minus the gazillion rectangles all over the place (ok, ok, four – but it felt like a gazillion;), but haven’t finished Paul’s dresser yet…can’t wait to get that done and show you though!

So happy with my new bright blue dresser and gallery wall. Even happier that I solved the Big Mirror-TV-Dilemma. One more step closer to the reveal…can’t wait!