Furniture makeover

Its finally done. My biggest furniture redo to date. I picked up this wardrobe off craigslist. I thought it was all real wood, but it wasn't. And on further inspection at home, it wasn't in that great of shape. But with some TLC, it has come to life. Let me tell you what I did.

Here is the old piece of junk. Bless its heart. It just needs some love. I had in mind a cute wardrobe for the baby. My little Princess' clothes took up the whole closet and most of the 5-drawer chest. ummm....you know little girls have to have  alot of stuff! Socks, panties, bloomers, tights, shirts, slips, etc. There has to be a shirt and sock to match everything, right? Especially since she is the only girl with all these boys!! Anyways, back to the wardrobe.
It would give him storage and his own little closet.

So I decided, even though I was going to use chalk paint, I wanted to go ahead and prime it. So I did.

 

While that was drying, it was time to come up with a color scheme that would be fun, cute, and work for a boy/girl room. So when I went to the craft store, this is the color pack that hit me!! I knew I wanted to try the mod podge craze, so I bought this paper pack. While I was perusing the aisles, I came across a faux canvas painting with this same motif and colors That says Jesus Loves Me! (half off, too!)
Now its time to mod podge. I looked up a DIY recipe. But with mixed reviews, I went ahead and got the real deal for this project.

I painted the drawers with DIY chalk paint after I primed them. The color is "snow shadow".

I put on a thin coat of podge and placed my roughly-cut-to-size paper onto the front of drawer. I worked the bubbles out with my library card (is that legal???) and kept a watch for it trying to bubble up. That stuff sets up fast, and I mean FAST! There is not much repositioning it.

Then I used a method I read from another blog to get the edges cut to size. I took a sanding block, the kind that is on a kind of spongy brick, and sanded the paper all around the edges. You can see the white line on this pic where I sanded it down. Then I carefully tore the paper downward. Left a nice clean edge, and sort of distressed it for me. After that I put a thin layer of podge all over the top to seal it, and around the edges.  It was an awesome idea! and those sanding blocks are mega awesome! After I did all the drawers, I went on to the hideous mirrored doors.

What on earth do you do with that kind of huge mirror? Well, if you are me, you PAINT IT. So that's what I did. Then I put podge on the mirrored part, and put down some cute coordinating paper onto it.
Putting the hinges back on was a major pain. Had a few probs getting doors to shut. Had to do a little sanding. But, hey, that's chocolates for you. A surprise in every bite! The old drawer pulls with a new coat of paint, and poof! Looks fab. Drum roll............................

Ta da! The finished product.. What an adorably cute wardrobe for an even cuter little boy! I think it turned out pretty well, considering what I started with. It wasn't very hard, either. So go find some old out dated piece of furniture and get to making a new piece to be proud of!! I'm already on the hunt for another project!!