Gettin' crafty: Decoupaged dresser for Miss Sienna

Motherhood has been a very interesting ride so far. It's by far the most exhausting and rewarding thing I have ever done, and probably ever will do. I have more unfinished projects than I care to count and less time to do them. But I did finally get on it yesterday!

The only other time in my life that I've been surrounded by so many tiny articles of clothing was when I had a playroom full of Barbie dolls and all her friends. Sienna's Nana and GiGi have done a wonderful job spoiling her with cute clothes that I can only hope will all be worn at least once. But this girl is almost 7 weeks old and growing like a weed and I'm already packing away newborn and some 0-3 month clothes!

Storage has been somewhat of a challenge in this house because the lower level where me, Evan and the baby are has no closet space. So I've been on the lookout for a dresser since before Sienna was born. For the first few weeks I was able to make due with just the single rack I hung on the wall and the space inside the changing table. I simply wasn't prepared for how quickly she would grow out of (and into) all the clothes she has been given, which needed to be pulled out of their respective boxes and bags, washed, and put away.

So last week I was taking a walk with Sienna and stumbled upon this guy:

There it was, exactly what I needed, just left on the curb a few blocks from our house. Naturally, I enlisted Evan's help to load it into the car and bring it home so I could fix 'er up. I have no shame, I've said it before. The next best thing to thrifting is turning a piece of garbage into a gem!

Initially I considered painting it a fun coral color, or perhaps I would stencil the drawers. I didn't want to spend too much time (or money) and I needed to get on this soon because I was officially out of space downstairs. Thanks to Pinterest I decided to decoupage the drawers instead.

So one fine Wednesday morning, Nan and I packed Sienna up and set out to find inspiration. A trip to Hobby Lobby for some drawer knobs, Mod Podge and sponge brushes and Target for some wrapping paper and I was ready to decoupage.

I didn't really plan this out beforehand, and I had never decoupaged before. Luckily the process was simple. I just lined up the paper with the area I wanted to cover, cut it out with an Xacto knife, and Mod Podged it. The knobs easily poked through the paper to be secured. This worked out well because I couldn't find any pulls that were the same size as the hardware that was already on the dresser, so the paper covers up the extra holes.

I quite like the end result. The only thing I would like to do is distress the edges a bit since there's already some chipped paint... you know, to make it look more deliberate. But I may leave it for now because I had to put Sienna's clothes away today when I managed to get three loads of laundry done while she slept. They say sleep when baby sleeps? HA! I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Overall cost of project:
Dresser: FREE
Knobs: $15 (6 x $2.50ea)
Wrapping paper: $1.50
Supplies (Mod Podge, sponge brushes, Xacto knife): $10
Total: $26.50