Baby Room Update: Dresser Makeover & Elephant Art

dresser makeover 1

This is only a small update, but I thought I would share. I have a bunch of stuff coming in the mail to add to the nursery. I have a scheduled cesarean in 10 days if I don’t go into labor before then for a VBAC, Nothing like the last minute, huh?

I took the black vintage dresser from the girl’s old room and re-purposed it in the nursery. This dresser belonged to my mother when she was just a toddler, so it has some wear and tear. I have dragged it with me through multiple houses and apartments. It is ridiculously heavy, but built like a brick. A maple brick. Maple is difficult to stain once it has been stripped, plus there was damage, so I painted this dresser about 12 years ago. The black, glossy paint had seen better days. I decided to sand, prime and paint it blue. The dark royal blue is the main color for the boy nursery.

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Here is the black painted before, the gray primed middle, and the blue after. I kept the original hardware.

For the elephant art canvases, I had planned on recycling the old canvases from my first son’s ‘nursery nook’, but apparently I went a little too hog wild with the glue when I made those canvases because I ended up destroying them while trying to remove the birds. Ooops. So much for being thrifty. Luckily, pre-primed canvases are not expensive. I grabbed a two pack from Target and sprayed them with high gloss white spray paint to get a smooth surface.

Then I applied wall decals to the smooth surface. I won these elephant decals in an Instagram giveaway, so I was still being a little thrifty. One elephant tore a little since they were not the greatest quality. Still, I ended up with two decent sized pieces of nursery art for around $15 total.




elephant art

I am thinking I might move the dresser to another wall though. Something is just not clicking for me with the room layout. So, I might need to re-hang the canvases.

dresser makeover 1

I am also staining some natural wood elements to add to the decor. I didn’t anticipate how much I would dislike the sterile look of white trim and grey walls. I thought some fabric bins and blue accents would balance it out, but I am not liking it. Hopefully a room rearrange and a couple walnut stained accessories will fix it. I think it would all look great with wood floors, but the grey carpet is just too much grey. It is kind of funny how the enormous amount of wood throughout the rest of the house is sometimes oppressive feeling, but then the one room without it feels to blah and floaty to me.

I am hoping to have a the full room put together with better pictures before baby boy arrives.

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