The Story

I used to have this thing against dressers as a kid. I thought they were a big, ugly waste of space. In High School when I got to move into my dream room in the basement, I purposefully omitted my old dresser and slipped the drawers neatly under my bed instead. It seamed like a more aesthetic and convenient solution... now I had more space in my room! It actually worked really well for me back then.

But I never grew out of my distaste for them. At least, not until recently. Our entire marriage (up till a few months ago) my husband and I, our kids... none of us had a dresser. And I'll tell you what. Our closets and rooms were always a DISASTER. Ideally I'd hang most of my stuff up (but rarely did) and open shelving + clothing is a really messy combination. 

Needless to say, after we bought our first home, I also bought my first dresser. (It only took me 7+ years!) Jordan and I have a matching set in our room, and they've really grown on me! But that was a big day in the Divis household. I bravely opened the packages and began the tedious task of assembling it... and found that I am hopeless at following instructions. I cried a lot of tears out of frustration. I gave up on it, and then Jordan helped me with the last steps so I didn't completely lose my mind.

After I was converted into a dresser-lover, I realized the kids needed their own dressers as well. I didn't want to spend as much as we spent on ours though... I didn't even want to spend half. I was thinking more along the lines of... $FREE.99 if you know what I mean. So week after week I was scouring through Craigslist and taking detours to look at garage sales. I was adamant about finding something, anything that I could refinish for the kids to use. I couldn't find anything, it was like someone put a vanishing spell on every used dresser in the Spokane area! So, I called in the calvary. I realized that networking is the best way to get what you want, so I called and texted some friends and family and just asked them to keep an eye out for me.

It wasn't long after, that my mom called and said "We found a dresser on the side of the road that said 'free' and we picked it up for you! Your dad's going to bring it in tomorrow morning." And she texted me some pictures of it, said it would need a little fixing up but that it was in good shape.

The picture definitely didn't do the thing justice. It's solid wood, thick and durable, clean and nice smelling. It was literally a dream. The exterior definitely needed a makeover, but that's exactly the kind of project I had in mind anyway! I was so excited to get started on it. I used Rustoleum Bright Coat Metallic Gold Finish spray paint for the knobs, because Della wants EVERYTHING in her room to be golden. She wanted the entire dresser itself to be gold, but I said no. Instead of painting it with a brush, I decided to use a Rustoleum satin finish spray paint to refinish this. In retrospect, I think I would have preferred painting it by hand. Despite my best efforts, I had several drips that I ended up having to let dry, sand out, and repaint. It took three cans of white paint to finish it in the end.

It wasn't till after it was finished, and my parents came for a visit and took a look at it, that I heard the whole story. My parents are so cool. It was definitely not a convenient thing that they did, picking up this dresser for me. My mom was driving along in her car when she saw it, so she called my dad, who dropped what he was doing to come help my mom put it in the trunk of her car... which it didn't fit in. So, they set it in as best they could and my mom drove slowly all the way home, with the trunk open and an ugly old dresser protruding out of it, so that their granddaughter could have a nice place to put her clothes. That pretty much sums up the type of people my parents are, and I feel so lucky to have them, and to have this cool piece of furniture that will help me remember the fun story behind it... which ultimately is a story about my parents...  being wonderful.

The hunt isn't over, however! I'm still on the lookout for a dresser for our boys. So if you see anything, you know who to call! Wink wink, hint hint. 

Check out the full process!