Nursery Dresser Makeover: From Wild Tween to Vintage Preppy!

When we shared Ben's Vintage Nursery we said the "before" on this dresser was pretty wild...here she is:

Wild is right, yes? That would be neon green, bright purple, and pink, orange mixed in there too!

This was in my sister's room when she was a tween. Her bedroom was painted all crazy. Like, I'm talking Nickelodeon themed colors, and stripes, and neon, with zig zags on the wall. I wish I had a photo to show you. But you will just have to imagine the colors from this dresser--but up the crazy x1000.
Prior to becoming purple beast, this piece had been in the family for awhile. It actually belonged to my great grandparents. I'm not sure what the original dresser color was, but I'm going to guess it wasn't this bright. It's nothing fancy, but it was nice to have a piece from my family for his room.

The plan was to stain the top of the dresser a deep walnut brown, and paint the rest in a bright chalk paint blue. Adam had to strip the top of the dresser for me (paint thinner not pregnant lady friendly!) And scrape all the layers of paint off.  And I'm talking layers. This dresser had been painted several times before the Nickelodeon tween room.

When we got the paint off, we realized the top was not ~real wood~. Adam took the sander to it and lightly sanded the top to make it smooth.

We were ready to begin!

Since the top was not real wood, we used Minwax Gel Stain in Dark Walnut. The gel stain works on fabricated wood.

This was after the first layer of stain...not so bad but needed another coat.

I used Webster's Chalk Powder paint, mixed with Sherwin Williams Blue Plate. The chalk paint powder is all natural, so it was safe for me to use it while I was pregnant.  The nice thing about chalk paint is that the piece doesn't need to be primed or anything, just wiped down and painted! 

I mixed it with Sherwin Williams Blue Plate and used their Harmony brand of paint which has 0 VOC. 

I probably would have been fine with regular SW paint, and a mask, and outside..but I was a spaz about that sort of thing. I also avoided ham sandwiches and JIMMY JOHNS for the whole first trimester. Now that was hard to do!

Anyway, it took me one weekend to paint it. Mostly because I was tired from being pregnant. I had to take 600 breaks. It could have been finished in one day by a non-pregnant person. The paint dries SUPER fast, and there was hardly any sanding involved.  

I finished it with a dark wax by Fiddles N Sons brand... Which Webster's recommends for use with their products.

Here it is all done up in Ben's room.

The pulls were from Menards hardware section. I'm more of an Oil Rubbed Bronze hardware girl, but the brushed dark silver just looked so much nicer.  They also go nice with the DIY bookcase in his room. We'll share about that very soon, along with some other great details!

See the rest of Ben's vintage nursery!

Baby Boy N: Nursery Inspiration and Purchases (Flea Market Finds!)

Ever since we found out we are having a boy I have been pinning and daydreaming about the perfect little boy's nursery. Take a look at some of my pins to give you an idea of where we are heading...

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Adam and I both love old maps. The tiny school chair in the above photo is oh-so-adorable too. Simple room, yet makes a statement.

The nursery below is simple and has a similar style crib to the one above, only they kept the wood tone for has a more traditional look. It's the Jenny Lind crib in dark cherry, which is what we have picked out for the nursery.
I just love that it's not big and boxy like most cribs today. Those just aren't our thing. It does convert to a toddler bed too. I can't wait to get it set up in the room so we can figure out what the layout will be!

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Our color scheme is similar to this next photo. I swooned over this kid's room a little when I saw it last week. Again, the vintage map made it's way into the room, and another cute school chair or two.

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 Another one of my favorite nursery pins: Simple, rustic, traditional, and globes instead of maps!

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Are you noticing a trend with the cribs, the maps, the color schemes and textures? I sure did when I reviewed my pin board.

We found an old leather-like chair at a resale shop for 50 bucks. Not as sch-mancy as the one below---but it's the generic version of this.  Adam went and tried it out, and brought it home the same day. It will add a masculine and warm touch to the room. I have a feeling Adam and I both will get plenty of use out of the 50 bucks we spent on the chair, we'll be glad we went for comfort at 4 a.m.

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For bedding I'm going with whites, and navy blues. I like different prints like stripes and geometric.I think it will be fun to have a bunch of different prints to mix and match. Like these sheets from American Baby Company.

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This A-Z prints are just adorable. The Etsy seller has so many cute prints for the nursery. I'm not sure I will be able decide what to order!

 Etsy Shop

Every body keeps asking what our theme will be. But, there really is no theme.
We are drawn to old vintage stuff. We like navy blue, and green. We're mixing those likes together.
We plan to throw some wood tones, and brown leather in there to give it a masculine touch. I of course have already picked up a few items at flea markets this summer.

Here is my stash:

Kelly green school chair: $12 (talked dealer down from $22!)
Basket of old baseballs: $2
The projector slides are of old airplanes. $3 each.
Old rusty Chevy hubcaps: $5
Camp stool: $7

I will share the room as it is now with you very soon. We have some special guests staying with us this weekend, then after that, it's time to get down to business! We have a few DIY projects planned for the room too!

What do you think of where our nursery is headed?
Did you have a "there's not really a theme" theme in your nursery too?