my brother's dresser

I apologize if the above picture is a bit frightening.  This was my little brother's bedroom a few months ago (it has since been much improved, I promise!).  What we want to focus in on is the dresser.  It's a nice old antique dresser that belonged to our great aunt.  My brother had been using it for his clothes and apparently as a belt hangar and TV stand.  He has since gotten a new dresser and this old dresser was offered up and I snatched it right away!

I knew there was some potential hiding behind the scratched up top and faded sections.

SEE!:

I think this dresser is taking well to it's new surroundings- our nursery of course!

When I got it to my house, it definitely needed a good sanding down.  I knew I wanted it to be a lighter color instead of the reddish color that it was.  Unfortunately, after sanding it down (I promise I did ALL this before I was pregnant!) the scratches in the top just weren't fixable.  So instead of re-polying it all, I decided to go with a two tone effect.  I painted the shell of the dresser in white and poly'd over the drawers so their natural wood hue could shine through.  A couple of $1.99 knobs later, and this baby shined right up!  Total cost for the dresser was only about $16 since the dresser was free, the paint and poly I had on hand, and the knobs were very reasonable!

Ooh and another sneak peek of the nursery is in the mirror!   And no, that's not a hand print painted on the top of the dresser, it's an old hankie that I had made for my mom when I was little- it's my hand print!

I love how simple the knobs are, yet they make the dresser look much more modern.

And of course what I love most about the dresser?  The cute baby pj's it holds!!!