Craigslist Revival

Many moons ago we made a few spur of the moment Craigslist purchases.   We had found two relatively ugly, unloved, dumpster dreaming dressers, in much need of some love and admiration.  The second I saw them, I called up The Hubs and ordered (read: politely requested, with a sense of urgency) that he get them for me.  Seventy dollars later, I had two dressers, and lots of work to do.

I had plans for them to go in the guest room.  Well, moons and moons later, they were still ugly and unused.  My grandeur plans of working on the guest room went up in flames the day I found out I was pregnant.  The Nursery became my number one concern, the main living areas of the house my second place contender, and the guest room…let’s just say, I doubt it will ever be finished at this rate.

Last week I had an epiphany.  I was staring at our living room – that I hate, and realizing how un-grown up I felt our television situation was looking.  Currently, our TV sits on one of those glass modern, bachelor type of TV stands.  It has served it’s purpose well over the last 18 months, but now that I’m in nesting mode, I’m noticing how I hate the things that don’t breathe homey and comfortable.  So I began searching IKEA and Craigslist for new options.  I was thinking something with drawers for storage, a little taller than our current piece, white (because I have a love affair with the light airy look, and am currently turning everything except our kitchen cabinets white) and with simple lines.

Then I remembered…the Craigslist find!

This little lovey was sitting collecting dust in our garage, and I had forgotten all about her.   In her old age she was a dresser, but I had visions of removing a few drawers to make shelves for our DVD player, Wii and computer.  Shelves + drilling some large holes in the back for cables would make this easily into a TV stand worthy of the homey living room I’ve desired.

So this weekend, my Madre and I snapped on some face masks, and in the chill of an Arizona winter, we cleaned her up, sanded her out, and painted her to a shining new life.

There were a few snags in our master plan along the way.

Although the piece itself is very sturdy, the shelving is actually made up of particle board.  So we spent some time pondering the likely hood of it supporting our electronic equipment.  In the end, we realized that it was actually quite sturdy and would work just fine.

The Arizona chill led us to not be able to work as fast as we planned…leaving me with six drawers to sand and paint this week.

Not too bad though, I’m sure I can easily get that done in a day or two.   For your visual enjoyment, picture the above dresser with three drawers on either side of the centre three shelves.   That’s the overall look we’re going for.

Tonight I had her brought inside so that our cars could get back in the garage for the night.  Just for this week, we placed her in that awkward nook in our living room.  Surprisingly, both my brother and The Hubs noticed how nice it looked there, and so did I.  It fits the space very nicely, but leaving it there meant it couldn’t be the TV goddess I had hoped.

We’re playing around with a different TV idea…I’ll let you know how that turns out.   For now though, we’ll pop those finished drawers in and use this as our TV stand until we figure out all the details.

Another example of my love for painting everything white –

This was a freebie handed to us that initially freaked me out.  It is this huge lamp, with an elephant on it, that was originally a kaleidescope of southwestern colours.  My partner in making old things new and vibrant – my Mum, went ahead and sprayed the lamp to a white sheen.  We still need to find a new lampshade for it, but it definitely fits in with my love of random whitewashed animals.

Eclectic and I’m loving it!