Catch up.

I know I need not tell anyone else who has a children-centric schedule how there are some weeks that whiz by impossibly fast.  The kind that during the week, you do not know if you're coming or going and there are just too many things written down on the calendar.  In pen.  And yet, when you finally sit down at the end of it all, you cannot--for the life of you--piece together the blurry bits to figure out what, exactly, you did.  Of course, what you did not do (ahem, laundry...blog posts...weed the garden) is plainly obvious.

And so, since I am playing catch up all over the place anyway, here is something I meant to post.  It is a dresser I recently refinished.  It used to be my brother's--the ubiquitous shelf/dresser combo that every boy had growing up.  It matched his bunk beds.  And I'm pretty sure it was standard issue during the late 70's...boys got these sets and girls got the frilly canopy set (mine was painted cream and yellow, I think, with touches of gold).

When my parents moved last summer, I saw the dresser sitting in their garage and I asked if I could have it.  They were more than happy to oblige--my brother did some serious damage to it! 

My original plan was to paint it a fun color for William's "big boy" room.  But as we were sprucing up the living room for my brother's party, I thought it would make a nice beverage center.

I don't have a real before picture (specifically, I failed to capture the dated brassy hardware and scallop trim--Charlie just hacked away anything too "country").  But here are some shots I took during the sanding and wood-filler process, which was fairly painless (despite my brother's heavy hand at carving his favorite band's name all over the wood.  Really, John?  Really??).

And here it is after three coats of Rust Oleum Ultra Cover in Navajo White, plus new hardware.  It took three (!) cans of spray paint--thank goodness I picked up a reusable "spraygrip" attachment for the cans.  I also used a couple coats of hi-gloss wipe-on poly.   

I removed the middle shelf to make it look more like a hutch.  And I may eventually paint the back a different color.  But for now, I just propped up a print we like and stocked it with everything we need for impromptu entertaining.  I just love how it turned out. 

cheers, Sandra

*I'm linking up over at...