While I haven’t written in a while, it’s not for a lack of
projects happening over here at the Larochelle house! This summer has been a
flurry of unfinished projects in the midst of vacations and exploring our new
city. I had high expectations for this summer, as I’m sure most teachers do,
about the home projects I would conquer in these 2 months. While I did get a
lot of things accomplished and done, I also spent a lot of time doing
absolutely nothing. As the summer comes to a close (well sort of since I don’t
actually have a teaching position lined up for this coming school year, but I’m
still holding out hope! Think good thoughts everyone!), our kitchen still sits
without most of the cabinet doors, with hopes of it being done by Eric’s
parents visit at the end of September. There are other projects we have
completed in the kitchen, but I’m waiting to unveil the whole thing, hopefully
soon! If I haven’t said it before, painting cabinets is the worst. I’ll
probably stick that in there again when I blog about our kitchen.
Now, enough about what we haven’t finished, let’s talk about
something we have finished!
College means getting hand me down furniture from your
parents. I think every adult has a piece
(or 2 or 3) of furniture in their homes that hold some weird sentimental value,
but is also somewhat out of date. It’s hard to decide what to do with those
pieces that you have been forcing your friends to move for you since sophomore year
of college. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been leaving my parent’s hand me down
furniture in states for years. There are couches, a tiny desk, tables, throw pillows,
and some other stuff scattered from Gainesville to Atlanta to Roanoke. The things that
made it with us all the way to Roanoke, made it for a reason.
Enter in my dad’s childhood dresser. It’s a great, solid
wood, dresser that holds some value because of its age and the fact that it
stood in my dad’s room and held his boyhood clothes (see what I mean about the
weird sentimental value??). I want it to be in my future children’s room so I
can tell them about it:
Me: A little misty eyed smiling at my child fondly-
You know this was
your grandpa’s dresser and it sat in his room and watched him play just like it’s
watching you play.
Child: Looking at me like I’m nuts and probably thinking that my statement
was crazy… because it was-
Cool Mom….
Goes
back to playing Star Wars Legos or reading Harry Potter.
See?! Who wouldn’t want that kind of loving interaction with
their child? I can’t wait. Anyway, since it was my dad’s (I won’t embarrass anyone
here by saying just how old it is), it was a little outdated. The stain was a
little orangey yellow and the dresser pulls dated it even further. The before
pictures show some of that, but I forgot to take one of the before with all of
the drawers in it. I thought a lot about what I wanted to do to update the
dresser and looked at a lot of dresser remodels on Pinterest. I wanted to make
sure that it would be something my dad would like too, I didn’t think painting
it pink would be his idea of a good remodel of his old dresser. In the end I
decided to paint the dresser and leave the drawers without paint and
re-stain them. We had to fix the back as well, which Eric did really well.
He’s very handy! As I started sanding the dresser though, I became attached to
the wood look. Also, if you have ever stripped paint off of a piece of wood
furniture you would never paint wood ever again without seriously thinking
about it. After staining a drawer I decided that I really liked it without
paint and that I was going to stain the entire dresser.
The pulls were another task. Eric and I have different
styles at times, most times. We have definitely learned what we both like and
have learned that if we both like it, we should buy it. This is marriage
people! When we stumbled upon some pulls that we both loved at an Anthropolgie
in DC, we bought! I’m really happy with the pulls, I think they add the right
amount of update and keep the dresser looking fresh, but also sweet enough that
I can put it into a nursery in the future, if that’s what we decide. I’m super happy with the way it turned out and
it fits right into our guest bedroom for now. I also think my dad will like the
new look and it will mean a lot to him to have it in our new home.
Confession: Sometimes you get attached to the furniture that
was in your parent’s house and ends up in your college apartment and then somehow
ends up in your adult house and after you update your strangely sentimental piece
you love it all over again and daydream about putting it in nurseries.
