Peter's Dresser

I found this four drawer dresser on craigslist for $30 and couldn't pass it up. It's older but it was almost exactly what I was looking for. I only wish it were a little shorter so Peter could better access the top drawer, but he's growing and getting taller so that won't be an issue for too much longer.

I scoured the internet for free clipart that I could use to make visual labels for the drawers of the dresser and then when I finally found ones that I liked I had my friend Amanda vectorize them and cut them out of vinyl for me. They turned out really nice. I've had the labels for months and finally got around to putting them up on the dresser and Peter LOVES them!

Bookcases All Done!

So we finally finished the bookcases and brought them into our room. They look so good. Andrew did a really good job making them. We were originally going to put them into our office but decided to put them in our master bedroom instead. It's almost like we designed them to go in our bedroom. It goes bookcase, nightstand, bed (not pictured because it wasn't made), nightstand, bookcase. I'm so happy I don't have baskets of books all over the floor in our room anymore. There's plenty of room for more books now too. I also have a lot more room on my side of the bed now. Our room wasn't designed to be centered on that wall though we can tell because the door to the bathroom and closet isn't centered on the opposite wall. It's much more obvious now that everything is centered on the wall.

My bookcase

Andrew's bookcase

Bookcase Update

We've been slow with our projects lately. Oh well. We finally got our bookcases painted. We're letting them sit for a while in the garage to cure and then I think we'll put a clear coat of poly finish on them. Originally they were going to go in our office but after talking with a friend and thinking about it for a while they are going to go in our bedroom which will then give us more space in our office. I'm excited to finally bring them inside and get things organized. The pictures make the brown look funny, it's a much nicer darker shade of brown in person.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Bookcase

Today Andrew and I went to Home Depot and bought enough MDF and backer board to build these bookcases. We kept them the same width but made them a few inches taller so they are an even 7' tall. They are going to replace the current bookcases in our office. I'm so excited because I will finally have enough shelf space for all my books and Andrew's excited because he gets to use one of his Christmas presents (it makes the grooves in the boards to make stronger joints) and his power tools. When they are all done and painted and we're ready to put them in the office we will paint the office. We didn't paint it when we did the rest of the front rooms because we really didn't want to move desks and books. Now we will have to move everything anyway. 

So, funny story: the original plan was to buy 1"x12"x8' boards but they were $13 a pop and we needed 10 so Andrew suggested using MDF instead which comes in 4'x8' sheets which were $30 each but we only needed 3. I was pretty sure they weren't going to fit in our van and Andrew thought they would. So we get out to our car and we had to push the driver's seat all the way forward with the back fully upright and I had to take the head rest off so I could have a little room just to find out that the door won't close. So Andrew had to go back into the store and have them rip the sheets into 12" boards for us. After that I was able to put my seat back to normal.

I bought some brown paint with the intention of painting my Ikea chairs brown... I'm still going to that someday... But I think that the brown will go nicely with the yellow color in office (the same yellow that my living room is painted). I'm also going to make an apron rack to hang in my dining room and it's going to be that brown and I think I'm finally going to paint my spice rack too. AND I think we will have enough scraps and paint leftover to make one of these.

1st bookcase with no top

The rest of the MDF & backer board for the bookcases

The work station